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WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


Woman  in  Music 


BY 

GEORGE  P.  UPTON 

AUTHOR  OF  "  THE  STANDARD  OPERAS,"  ETC.,  ETC 


5ec0nlf  SEHttton 

REVISED  AND  ENLARGED 


CHICAGO 
A.  C.  McCLURG  AND  COMPANY 
1886 


Copyright, 
Bv  A.  C.  McClurg  and  Company, 
A.D.  1886. 


^0  a  QLtihntt 

TO  THE 

FRIENDSHIP  OF  A  STEADFAST  COMRADE, 

AND  AS  AN   ACKNOWLEDGMENT   OF  HER 
HELPFUL  SERVICE, 

THESE  STUDIES  OF  MY  LEISURE  HOURS 
TO  MY  WIFE. 


PREFACE. 


THE  first  edition  of  this  work  appeared  in 
1880  ;  but  its  circulation  was  interrupted 
by  a  fire  which  destroyed  the  plates.  A  re- 
newed demand  for  the  work  seems,  however, 
to  warrant  the  author  in  presenting  a  revised 
and  much  enlarged  edition,  in  which  the  scope 
of  the  general  subject  has  been  widened,  and 
its  illustration  has  been  made  still  more  com- 
plete by  additional  stories  of  composers  whose 
success  has  been  due  in  some  degree  to  the 
influence  of  woman.  The  work  has  been 
written  in  the  leisure  hours  of  other  pursuits, 
and  of  necessity  is  compiled  from  the  writer's 
musical  readings.  A  long  list  of  authorities  has 
been  consulted  for  facts  bearing  upon  the  sub- 
ject ;  and,  so  far  as  is  known  to  the  writer,  only 
the  highest  have  been  laid  under  contribution. 
As  a  well-stocked  musical  library  is  something  of 
a  rarity  in  this  country,  he  ventures  to  hope  that 
his  compilations,  and  his  comments  thereon, 
will  be  of  interest  to  the  musical  student,  and 
possibly  of  value  to  the  general  public. 

G.  P.  U. 

Chicago,  1886. 


If  to  the  depths  of  tenderness  and  devotion  in  which  the 
true  and  irresistible  empire  of  woman  must  commence,  and 
deprived  of  which  she  is  only  an  enigma  without  a  possible 
solution,  Nature  should  unite  the  most  brilliant  gifts  of  genius, 
the  miraculous  spectacle  of  the  Greek  Fire  would  be  renewed; 
the  glittering  flames  would  again  sport  over  the  abysses  of  the 
ocean  without  being  extinguished  or  submerged  in  the  chilling 
depths,  adding,  as  the  living  hues  were  thrown  upon  the  surging 
waves,  the  glowing  dyes  of  the  purple  fire  to  the  celestial  blue  of 
the  heaven-reflecting  sea.  —  Liszt, 

There  is  no  living  soul  so  capable  of  enjoying  and  cor- 
rectly judging  of  a  work  of  art  as  a  finely  cultivated  woman ; 
for  her  whole  inner  life  is  in  itself  a  sort  of  work  of  art.  Even 
the  highest  kind  of  men  have  something  formless  and  unfinished 
about  their  natures.  The  hasty  demands  of  life  do  not  stop  to 
inquire  whether  it  be  Sabbath  or  not :  they  surprise  man  amid 
the  worship  of  the  beautiful,  and  scarcely  give  him  time  to  re- 
frain from  profanation  of  the  altar.  But  the  life  of  woman,  — 
how  calm  as  a  festival  day,  how  full  of  harmony  may  it  not, 
should  it  not  be!  When  the  storm-bells  of  passion  have  rung 
out,  then  a  pure  ether  remains  behind.  ...  In  such  minds  the 
impression  made  by  a  work  of  art  is  correct  and  immediate ;  for 
they  are  prepared  to  receive  it,  —  themselves  serene  and  pure  as 
bridal  devotion.  —  Ehlert. 


CONTENTS. 
PART  I. 

PAGE 

Woman  in  Music  15 


PART  II. 

JoHANN  Sebastian  Bach   35 

George  Frederick  Handel   48 

LuDWiG  van  Beethoven   60 

Francis  Joseph  Haydn   84 

Wolfgang  Amadeus  Mozart   96 

Franz  Schubert   112 

Robert  Schumann   125 

Felix  Mendelssohn  Bartholdy    .   .   .   .  13S 

Frederick  Chopin   149 

Carl  Maria  von  Weber   162 

Richard  Wagner   177 


PART  III. 

Woman  as  the  Interpreter  of  Music  .    .  187 

Appendix   209 

Dedications   210 

Index   219 


PART  I. 
WOMAN    IN  MUSIC. 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


A  GENERAL  VIEW  OF  WOMAN'S  INFLUENCE  ON 
MUSIC.  —  LOVE  ATTACHMENTS  AND  HOME  LIFE. 
—  THE  FAILURE  OF  WOMAN  IN  COMPOSITION.  — 
SOME  CONSIDERATION  OF  REASONS  WHY  SHE 
HAS  PRODUCED  NO  ENDURING  MUSICAL  WORK. 

HE  special  purpose  of  this  essay  is  to 
characterize  the  real  relation  which 
woman  holds  to  music ;  and  it 
makes  no  more  pretentious  claim  than  to 
be  a  study  of  the  subject,  with  such  illustra-  , 
tions,  drawn  from  the  lives  of  representative 
composers,  as  can  be  furnished  by  a  musical 
library.  It  is  intended  to  be  historical  and 
aesthetic,  rather  than  philosophical  or  dog- 
matic ;  and  to  present  facts  for  consideration 
by  the  thoughtful  reader,  collated  from  the 
most  authoritative  sources,  rather  than  to 


1 6  WOMAAT  IN  MUSIC, 

attempt  to  explain  all  the  problems  of  woman's 
relation  to  music. 

The  subject  naturally  divides  itself  into  two 
heads  :  first,  the  influence  of  woman  in  en- 
couraging the  great  composers  to  labor,  and 
inspiring  them  in  the  production  of  their 
finest  works;  and,  second,  the  relations  of 
woman  to  the  performance  of  vocal  and  in- 
strumental music.  The  latter  branch  of  the 
subject  certainly  does  not  require  special  at- 
tention in  these  days  of  the  great  queens  of 
song,  whose  sway  is  everywhere  acknowledged, 
and,  so  far  as  the  scope  of  this  essay  is  con- 
cerned, hardly  needs  more  than  eulogistic  ref- 
erence. The  other  branch,  however,  has  been 
but  little  considered ;  and  what  little  is  known 
is,  as  a  rule,  incorrect.  The  attachments  of 
love,  the  bonds  of  friendship,  the  endearments 
of  home,  and  the  influences  of  society  have 
played  an  important  part  in  shaping  the  ca- 
reers of  the  great  composers,  and  in  giving 
color,  form,  and  direction  to  their  music.  In 
all  these  phases  of  hfe  genius  has  more  than 
once  knelt  at  the  feet  of  beauty  and  executed 
her  behests ;  and  more  than  one  immortal 
work  of  music  may  be  traced  to  the  stead- 
fast love  and  thoughtful  care  of  woman  in 
the  quiet  duties  of  home  life.    Few  students 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


17 


of  music  know  the  effect  of  these  subtile  in- 
fluences, except  through  the  medium  of  ro- 
mances and  rhapsodies  that  have  been  woven 
about  the  lives  of  composers  by  enthusiasts 
of  the  Rau  and  Polko  school,  or  of  pretty  fan- 
cies and  legends,  current  in  their  time,  that 
have  come  down  to  us,  and  are  implicitly  be- 
lieved, though  they  have  no  foundations  to  rest 
upon.  There  are  probably  very  few  persons, 
even  among  musicians,  who  do  not  firmly  be- 
lieve that  Beethoven  addressed  his  immortal 
love-song,  the  ''Adelaide,"  to  some  real  inam- 
orata ;  that  his  C  sharp  minor  sonata  was  in- 
spired by  the  moonlight ;  that  Mozart  wrote 
his  ''Requiem"  at  the  request  of  a  myste- 
rious stranger  who  was  in  some  manner  con- 
nected with  his  death ;  that  Haydn  expired 
in  an  ecstasy  of  joy  during  the  performance 
of  his  "  Creation ;  "  that  Weber  died  at  his 
piano  ;  and  that  Chopin  died  of  a  broken 
heart,  because  George  Sand,  tiring  of  her 
passion  and  his  morbidness,  flung  him  away. 
It  is  easy  for  the  world  to  accept  and  believe 
such  fancies,  because  it  is  ready  to  credit  gen- 
ius with  anything  that  is  bizarre  or  romantic, 
just  as  it  is  ready  t^)  condone  excesses  and 
eccentricities  that  would  not  be  tolerated  in 
the  ordinary  plodder. 


1 8  WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 

The  study  of  this  subject,  however,  would 
not  be  complete  without  considering  one  of 
its  phases  which  is  in  the  nature  of  an  enig- 
ma, and  to  which  no  satisfactory  answer  has 
yet  been  given.  The  \\Titer  does  not  hope 
to  soh-e  the  problem,  but  only  to  offer 
such  hints  as  suggest  themselves,  leaving  to 
others  better  versed  in  the  mysteries  of  the 
female  nature  and  in  the  peculiar  intellectual 
and  emotional  qualities  necessary  to  the  de- 
velopment of  a  great  composer,  to  discover 
the  exact  reasons  why  woman  has  failed 
to  create  important  and  enduring  works  in 
music. 

At  the  first  glance  it  would  seem  that 
musical  composition  is  a  province  in  which 
woman  should  excel.  It  may  be  laid  down, 
as  a  fundamental  and  indisputable  proposi- 
tion, that  music  is  the  interpreter  and  the 
language  of  the  emotions.  It  sounds  every 
note  in  the  gamut  of  human  nature,  from  ec- 
static joy  to  profound  despair.  It  is  "  of  all 
sweet  sounds  the  life  and  element."  It  wakes 
thoughts  that  do  often  lie  too  deep  for 
tears."  It  inspires,  enrages,  elevates,  sad- 
dens, cheers,  and  soothes  the  soul  as  no  other 
one  of  the  arts  can.  It  can  "  swell  the  soul  to 
rage,  or  kindle  soft  desire."    It  gives  voice 


IVOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


19 


to  love  and  expression  to  passion,  lends  glory 
to  every  art,  and  performs  its  loftiest  hOmage 
as  the  handmaid  of  religion.  Why  is  it,  then, 
that  woman,  who  possesses  all  these  attributes 
in  a  more  marked  degree  than  man,  who  is 
the  inspiration  of  love,  who  has  a  more  power- 
ful and  at  the  same  time  more  delicate  emo- 
tional force  than  man,  who  is  artistic  by  tem- 
perament, whose  whole  organism  is  sensitively 
strung,  and  who  is  religious  by  nature,  —  why 
is  it  that  woman,  with  all  these  musical  ele- 
ments in  her  nature,  is  receptive  rather  than 
creative?  Why  is  it  that  music  only  comes 
to  her  as  a  balm,  a  rest,  or  a  solace  of  hap- 
piness among  her  pleasures  and  her  sorrows, 
her  commonplaces  and  her  conventionaHties, 
and  that  it  does  not  find  its  highest  sources 
in  her?  In  other  fields  of  art  woman  has 
been  creative.  Rosa  Bonheur  is  man's  equal 
upon  canvas.  Harriet  Hosmer  has  made 
the  marble  Hve  with  a  man's  truth  and 
force  and  skill.  Mrs.  Browning  in  poetry, 
Mary  Somer\-ille  and  Caroline  Herschel  in 
science,  George  Sand,  Charlotte  Bronte,  and 
Madame  de  Stael  in  fiction,  have  successfully 
rivalled  man  in  their  fields  of  labor;  while 
George  EHot,  with  almost  more  than  mascu- 
line force,  has  grappled  with  the  most  ab- 


20 


IVOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


struse  problems  of  human  life,  and  though  an 
agnostic  has  courageously  sifted  the  doubts  of 
science  and  latter-day  cultured  unbelief,  and 
plucked  many  a  rose  of  blessing  for  suffering 
humanity  from  amid  its  storms  of  sorrow  and 
pain. 

These  may  all  stand  as  types  of  creative 
power ;  but  who  is  to  represent  woman  in  the 
higher  realm  of  music  ?  While  a  few  women, 
during  the  last  two  centuries,  have  created  a 
few  works,  now  mostly  unknown,  no  woman 
during  that  time  has  wTitten  either  an  opera, 
oratorio,  symphony,  or  instrumental  work  of 
hrge  dimensions  that  is  in  the  modern  rep- 
ertor}'.  Tvlan  has  been  the  creative  repre- 
sentative. Beethoven  has  shown  its  depth, 
its  majest}',  its  immortality ;  Mendelssohn,  its 
elegance  of  form ;  Handel,  its  solemnity  and 
grandeur;  Mozart,  its  wondrous  grace  and 
sweetness ;  Haydn,  its  purity,  freshness,  and 
simplicity ;  Schumann,  its  romance  ;  Chopin, 
its  poetry  and  tender  melancholy ;  Schubert, 
the  richness  of  its  melody ;  Bach,  its  mas- 
sive foundations  ;  Berlioz,  its  grotesquerie  and 
supematuralisms ;  and  Liszt  and  Wagner, 
its  poetical  idealism.  In  the  s}'mphony,  in 
opera,  in  oratorio,  even  in  the  lesser  realm 
of  chamber  music,  woman  has  either  been 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


21 


silent,  or  what  she  has  attempted  to  create 
has  had  but  an  ephemeral  existence. 

It  has  been  claimed  by  some  writers  that 
the  folk-songs  of  many  countries  belong  to 
women,  though  the  claim  is  mere  surmise, 
and  by  others  that  the  trouveresses  who  ac- 
companied the  troubadours  upon  their  tuneful 
journeys  created  melodies ;  but  even  this  is 
mythical,  and  history,  while  it  has  carefully 
preserved  numerous  poems  and  songs  of  the 
Provencal  troubadours  and  German  minne- 
singers, has  consigned  nearly  all  that  was  ac- 
complished by  the  trouveresses  to  the  Lethe 
of  oblivion.  Some  of  their  poems  that  have 
survived  show  much  grace  and  tender  feeling, 
but  their  musical  ability  was  mostly  restricted 
to  the  singing  of  their  male  companions'  songs. 
That  there  is  a  natural  aptitude  among  musi- 
cal women  for  the  writing  of  songs  and  ballads 
is  unquestionable ;  but  they  are  mostly  short- 
lived, and  are  rarely  woven  into  the  fabric  of 
national  life.  That  woman  has  also  ventured 
into  the  realms  of  higher  music  is  equally  un- 
questionable, as  the  list  of  female  composers 
in  the  appendix  to  this  essay  will  show,  and 
as  the  songs  without  words  of  Fanny  Hensel, 
sister  of  Mendelssohn,  and  the  piano  compo- 
sitions of  Madame  Schumann  attest ;  but  of 


22 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


all  the  works  written  by  these  numerous  com- 
posers, hardly  one  is  known  to  the  lyric  stage 
to-day.    And  why? 

The  most  palpable  answer,  and  the  only  one 
that  is  fairly  indisputable,  is  that  having  had 
equal  advantages  with  men,  they  have  failed 
as  creators.  This  somewhat  Milesian  reply 
is  illustrated  in  Mr.  Bulwer's  novel  of  "  The 
Parisians."  Isaura  Cicagna,  writing  to  her 
friend  Madame  de  Grantmesnil,  informs  her 
that  she  has  consulted  Dr.  C.  upon  the  sub- 
ject of  writing  music  instead  of  entering  stage 
life  as  a  prima  donna;  to  which  the  Doctor 
replied  :  — 

"My  dear  child,  I  should  be  your  worst  enemy 
if  1  encouraged  such  a  notion;  cling  to  the  career 
in  which  you  can  be  greatest :  gain  but  health, 
and  I  wager  my  reputation  on  your  glorious 
success  on  the  stage.  What  can  you  be  as  a 
composer  ?  You  will  set  pretty  music  to  pretty 
words,  and  will  be  sung  in  drawing-rooms  with 
the  fame  a  little  more  or  less  that  generally 
attends  the  compositions  of  female  amateurs. 
Aim  at  something  higher,  as  I  know  you  would 
do,  and  you  will  not  succeed.  Is  there  any  in- 
stance in  modern  times,  perhaps  in  any  times,  of 
a  female  composer  who  attains  even  to  the  emi- 
nence of  a  third-rate  opera  writer  ?  Composition 
in  letters  may  be  of  no  sex.  In  that  Madame 
Dudevant  and  your  friend  Madame  de  Grant- 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


23 


mesnil  can  beat  most  men  ;  but  the  genius  of 
musical  composition  is  homme,  and  accept  it  as 
a  compliment  when  I  say  that  you  are  essentially 
fefnme." 

Conceding  that  music  is  the  highest  ex- 
pression of  the  emotions,  and  that  woman  is 
emotional  by  nature,  is  it  not  one  solution  of 
the  problem  that  woman  does  not  musically 
reproduce  them  because  she  herself  is  emo- 
tional by  temperament  and  nature,  and  cannot 
project  herself  outwardly,  any  more  than  she 
can  give  o.utward  expression  to  other  myste- 
rious and  deeply  hidden  traits  of  her  nature? 
The  emotion  is  a  part  of  herself,  and  is  as 
natural  to  her  as  breathing.  She  lives  in 
emotion,  and  acts  from  emotion.  She  feels 
its  influences,  its  control,  and  its  power ;  but 
she  does  not  see  these  results  as  man  looks  at 
them.  He  sees  them  in  their  full  play,  and 
can  reproduce  them  in  musical  notation  as  a 
painter  imitates  the  landscape  before  him.  It 
is  probably  as  difficult  for  her  to  express  them 
as  it  would  be  to  explain  them.  To  confine 
her  emotions  within  musical  limits  would  be 
as  difficult  as  to  give  expression  to  her  relig- 
ious faith  in  notes.  Man  controls  his  emo- 
tions, and  can  give  an  outward  expression  of 
them.    In  woman  they  are  the  dominating 


24 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


element,  and  so  long  as  they  are  dominant 
she  absorbs  music.  Great  actresses  who  have 
never  been  great  dramatists  may  express  emo- 
tions because  they  express  their  own  natures ; 
but  to  treat  emotions  as  if  they  were  mathe- 
matics, to  bind  and  measure  and  limit  them 
within  the  rigid  laws  of  harmony  and  counter- 
point, and  to  express  them  with  arbitrary  signs, 
is  a  cold-blooded  operation,  possible  only  to 
the  sterner  and  more  obdurate  nature  of  man. 
As  I  have  said,  so  long  as  the  emotions  are 
dominant,  she  absorbs  music.  When  the 
emotions  lose  their  force  with  age,  her  musi- 
cal power  weakens.  Almost  every  man  who 
has  learned  to  play  an  instrument,  or  to  sing, 
be  it  ever  so  poorly,  and  be  his  troubles  or 
his  cares  ever  so  pressing,  continues  to  play 
or  to  sing  as  long  as  he  has  strength.  Max 
Miiller,  in  his  "  Deutsche  Liebe,"  has  a  neat 
illustration  of  this.  He  imagines  one  return- 
ing to  his  native  village  after  an  absence  of 
many  years.  As  he  wanders  about  the  streets 
he  finds  a  familiar  house :  "  here  the  old 
music-teacher  lived.  He  is  dead ;  and  yet 
how  beautiful  it  seemed  as  we  stood  and  lis- 
tened on  summer  evenings  under  the  window 
when  the  faithful  soul  indulged  in  his  own  en- 
joyment and  played  fantasies,  as  the  roaring 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


25 


and  hissing  engine  lets  off  the  steam  which 
has  accumulated  during  the  day."  The  large 
majority  of  women  drop  their  music  long  be- 
fore the  hair  grows  gray,  or  at  the  first  touch 
of  sorrow.  This  may  be  due  partly  to  the 
effect  of  forced  and  unwholesome  practice  in 
these  days,  when  it  is  thought  that  every  girl, 
whether  she  have  musical  intelligence  and 
ability  or  not,  must  learn  to  play  the  piano 
or  to  sing,  and  partly  to  the  engrossing  de- 
mands of  household  cares ;  but  these  causes 
do  not  explain  what  is  a  general  rule  :  while, 
in  the  matter  of  care,  even  the  pressure  of 
business  does  not  divert  man's  attention  from 
his  music ;  on  the  other  hand,  he  turns  to  it, 
even  in  his  old  age,  for  rest  and  solace. 

There  is  another  phase  of  the  feminine 
character  which  may  bear  upon  the  solution 
of  this  problem ;  and  that  is  the  inability  of 
woman  to  endure  the  discouragements  of  the 
composer,  and  to  battle  with  the  prejudice  and 
indifference,  and  sometimes  with  the  mahcious 
opposition,  of  the  world,  that  obstruct  his  pro- 
gress. The  lives  of  the  great  composers,  with 
scarcely  an  exception,  were  spent  in  constant 
struggle,  and  saddened  with  discouragements, 
disappointments,  the  pinching  of  poverty,  the 
jealousies  of  rivals,  or  the  contemptuous  in- 


26 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


difference  of  contemporaries.  Beethoven 
struggled  all  his  life  with  adverse  fate.  Schu- 
bert's music  was  hardly  known  in  his  life- 
time, and  his  best  works  were  not  fairly 
recognized  until  after  his  death.  Schumann 
is  hardly  yet  known.  There  is  scarcely  a 
more  pitiable  picture  than  that  of  the  great 
Handel  struggling  against  the  maUcious  ca- 
bals of  petty  and  insignificant  rivals  for  popu- 
lar favor,  who  now  are  scarcely  known  even 
by  name.  Mozart's  life  was  a  constant  war- 
fare ;  and  when  this  wonderful  child  of  genius 
went  to  his  grave  in  the  paupers'  quarter  of 
the  churchyard  of  St.  Marx,  he  went  alone,  — 
not  one  friend  accompanied  him,  and  no  one 
has  known  to  this  day  where  he  sleeps.  Ber- 
lioz's music  is  just  beginning  to  be  played  in 
his  native  country.  Wagner  fought  the  world 
all  his  life  with  indomitable  courage  and  per- 
sistence, and  died  before  he  had  estabhshed 
a  permanent  place  for  his  music.  There  is 
scarcely  a  composer  known  to  fame,  and 
whose  works  are  destined  to  endure,  who 
hved  long  enough  to  see  his  music  appreci- 
ated and  accepted  by  the  world  for  what  it 
was  really  worth.  Such  fierce  struggles  and 
overwhelming  discouragements,  such  pitiless 
storms  of  fate  and  cruel  assaults  of  poverty, 


IVOMA.V  IN  MUSIC. 


27 


in  the  pursuit  of  art,  woman  is  not  calculated 
to  endure.  If  her  triumph  could  be  instant ; 
if  work  after  work  were  not  to  be  assailed, 
scoffed  at,  and  rejected ;  if  she  were  not  lia- 
ble to  personal  abuse,  to  the  indifference  of 
her  own  sex  on  the  one  hand  and  masculine 
injustice  on  the  other, —  there  would  be  more 
hope  for  her  success  in  composition  :  but  in- 
stant triumphs  are  not  the  rewards  of  great 
composers.  The  laurels  of  success  may  dec- 
orate their  graves,  placed  there  by  the  ap- 
plauding hands  of  admiring  posterity,  but 
rarely  crown  their  brows. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  nearly  all  the  great 
music  of  the  world  has  been  produced  in 
humble  hfe,  and  has  been  developed  amid 
the  environments  of  poverty  and  in  the  stern 
struggle  for  existence.  The  aristocracy  has 
contributed  very  little  to  music,  and  that  little 
can  be  spared  without  detriment.  Nearly  all 
the  masters  have  been  of  lowly  and  obscure 
origin,  and  have  lived  and  died  in  comparative 
poverty ;  for,  with  rare  exceptions,  musical 
composition  has  been  miserably  unremunera- 
tive  until  within  the  last  fifty  years.  The  endur- 
ing music  has  been  the  child  of  poverty,  the 
outcome  of  sorrow,  the  apotheosis  of  suffering. 
Sebastian  Bach  was  the  son  of  a  hireling 


28 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


musician.  Beethoven's  father  was  a  dissipated 
singer.  Cherubini  came  from  the  lowest  and 
poorest  ranks  of  Hfe.  Gluck  was  a  forester's 
son.  LulH  in  his  childhood  was  a  page,  and 
slept  in  palace  kitchens.  Haydn's  father  was 
a  wheelwright;  and  his  mother,  previous  to 
marriage,  was  a  cook  in  the  kitchen  of  Count 
Harrach,  the  lord  of  his  native  village.  While 
on  his  death-bed,  Beethoven  called  Hummel's 
attention  to  a  picture,  and  said  :  "  See,  my 
dear  Hummel,  the  house  in  which  Haydn  was 
born  ;  to  think  that  so  great  a  man  should  have 
first  seen  the  light  in  a  peasant's  wretched 
hut."  Mozart's  father  was  a  musician  in  hum- 
ble circumstances,  and  his  grandfather  a  book- 
binder. Handel  was  the  son  of  a  barber  and 
surgeon.  Mehul  was  the  son  of  a  cook. 
Rossini's  father  was  a  miserable  strolling 
horn-player,  who  led  a  wild  Bohemian  life. 
Schubert  was  the  son  of  a  poor  schoolmaster ; 
and  his  mother,  hke  Haydn's,  was  in  service 
as  a  cook  at  the  time  of  her  marriage.  Cima- 
rosa's  father  was  a  mason,  and  his  mother  a 
washerwoman.  Schumann  was  a  bookseller's 
son;  and  Verdi,  the  son  of  a  Lombardian 
peasant.  Weber's  father  was  a  strolling  musi- 
cian and  actor.  Wagner,  the  musician  of  the 
future,  was  born  in  humble  circumstances  ;  his 


WOMAAT  IN  MUSIC. 


29 


father  having  been  a  petty  municipal  officer, 
and  his  stepfather  an  unpretentious  portrait- 
painter,  who  at  one  time  had  also  been  a  very 
poor  actor.  Among  all  the  prominent  com- 
posers, but  three  were  bom  in  affluence,  — 
Auber,  Meyerbeer,  and  Mendelssohn.  With 
these  three  exceptions,  they  developed  the 
grandeur,  the  sublimity,  the  passion,  and  the 
majesty  of  their  music  out  of  the  storms  of 
life,  the  pangs  of  sorrow,  and  the  hard  battle 
with  fate.  In  this  sphere  of  life,  where  music 
seems  to  have  had  its  origin,  the  lot  of  woman 
is  bounded  by  homely  but  unintermitting  cares. 
Her  existence  is  mainly  devoted  to  the  same 
tedious  routine  of  labor  from  the  rising  to  the 
setting  sun,  which  has  few  intervals  of  relaxa- 
tion, certainly  no  leisure  for  musical  effort.  Its 
demands  are  so  exacting  that  she  has  neither 
time  nor  disposition  for  the  theoretical  appli- 
cation which  musical  composition  requires. 

But  even  assuming  that  woman  had  the  dis- 
position and  the  leisure  to  devote  to  musical 
composition,  would  she  then  succeed?  The 
bluntest  answer  to  this  is  that  she  has  not  suc- 
ceeded when  she  has  had  the  opportunity. 
But  there  is  another  way,  perhaps,  of  arriv- 
ing at  an  answer.  Woman  reaches  results 
mainly  by  intuitions.     Her  susceptibility  to 


30 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


impressions  and  her  finely  tempered  organi- 
zation enable  her  to  feel  and  perceive,  where 
man  has  to  reach  results  by  the  slow  processes 
of  reason.  So  far  as  music  is  a  matter  of  emo- 
tion, she  is  more  immediately  sensitive  to  it 
than  man  ;  she  absorbs  it  more  quickly,  if  not 
so  thoroughly;  she  discriminates  with  more 
nicety,  and  often  judges  with  more  impartial- 
ity ;  she  recognizes  what  is  true  and  what  is 
false  more  quickly.  If  music  were  only  an 
object  of  the  perceptions  or  a  matter  of  in- 
stinct; if  it  simply  addressed  itself  to  the 
senses  ;  if  it  were  but  an  art  composed  of  rav- 
ishing melody,  of  passionate  outbursts,  —  of 
the  attributes  of  joy,  grief,  and  exaltation,  and 
vague,  dreamy  sensations  without  any  deter- 
minate ideas,  —  woman  possibly  would  have 
grasped  it  long  ago,  and  flooded  the  world  with 
harmony  as  she  has  with  song  :  but  music  is  all 
this  and  more,  for  these  are  only  effects.  It  is 
not  only  an  art,  but  an  exact  science,  and,  in  its 
highest  form,  mercilessly  logical  and  unrelent- 
ingly mathematical.  Its  mastery  requires  long 
years  of  patient  toil  and  continuous  appHca- 
tion.  The  imagination  does  not  have  a  free 
flight,  but  is  bounded  within  the  limits  of  form. 
The  mere  possession  of  the  poetical  imagina- 
tion and  the  capacity  to  receive  music  in  its 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


31 


fullest  emotional  power  will  not  lead  one  to  the 
highest  achievements  in  musical  art.  With 
these  subjective  qualities  must  be  combined 
the  mastery  of  the  theoretical  intricacies,  the 
logical  sequences,  and  the  mathematical  prob- 
lems which  are  the  foundation  principles  of 
music.  It  has  every  technical  detail  that 
characterizes  absolute  science  in  its  most  rigid 
forms.  In  this  direction  woman,  except  in 
very  rare  instances,  has  never  achieved  great 
results.  Her  grandest  performances  have  been 
in  the  regions  of  romance,  of  imagination,  of 
intuition,  of  poetical  feeling  and  expression, 
or  in  those  still  higher  duties  which  call  for 
the  exercise  of  religious  "faith  and  works." 

For  these  and  many  other  reasons  growing 
out  of  the  peculiar  organization  of  woman,  the 
sphere  in  which  she  moves,  the  training  which 
she  receives,  and  the  duties  she  has  to  fulfil, 
it  does  not  seem  that  woman  will  ever  origi- 
nate music  in  its  fullest  and  grandest  harmonic 
forms.  She  will  always  be  the  recipient  and 
interpreter,  but  there  is  little  hope  she  will  be 
the  creator. 

However  this  may  be,  there  is  a  field  in 
which  she  has  accomplished  great  results ; 
namely,  her  influence  upon  the  production  of 
music.    She  has  done  so  much  for  music 


32 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


that  it  is  not  exaggeration  to  claim  that  with- 
out her  influence  many  of  the  masterpieces 
which  we  now  so  much  admire  might  not 
have  been  accomphshed  at  all ;  that  the  great 
composers  have  often  written  through  her  in- 
spiration ;  and  that  she  has,  in  numerous  no- 
table instances,  been  their  impulse,  support, 
and  consolation. 

What  music  owes  to  her  I  shall  try  to 
show  by  reference  to  the  lives  and  labors  of 
Bach,  Handel,  Beethoven,  Haydn,  Mozart, 
Mendelssohn,  Schumann,  Schubert,  Weber, 
Chopin,  and  Wagner,  —  eleven  of  the  repre- 
sentative names  in  the  highest  forms  of  com- 
position, —  and  thus  establish  the  first  branch 
of  the  general  subject  that  was  laid  down  in 
the  beginning  of  this  essay. 


PART  II. 

BACH,  HANDEL,  HAYDN,  MOZART,  BEETHOVEN, 
SCHUBERT,  SCHUMANN,  MENDELSSOHN,  WEBER, 
CHOPIN,  AND  WAGNER  :  THE  INFLUENCE  OF 
WOMAN  UPON  THEIR  MUSICAL  PRODUCTIVITY. 


3 


JOHANN  SEBASTIAN  BACH. 

I,  my  Fabius,  who  am  in  other  respects  an  ad- 
mirer of  antiquity,  am  of  opinion  that  my  Bach,  and 
others  like  him,  unite  in  their  own  persons  many 
Orpheuses  and  twenty  Arions.  —  Gesner. 

O  thoroughly  appreciate  the  influence 
of  woman  upon  Sebastian  Bach  in 
his  musical  development  and  crea- 
tions, it  is  necessary  to  regard  the  modest  and 
God-fearing  cantor  of  St.  Thomas  not  only  as 
a  musician  but  also  as  a  man.  He  has  left 
an  imperishable  name,  and  his  musical  crea- 
tions are  the  very  foundations  of  the  art ;  and 
yet  his  life  was  mainly  spent  within  the  fam- 
ily circle,  where,  in  the  true  patriarchal  spirit, 
he  ruled  over  his  numerous  progeny.  This 
domestic  characteristic  distinguished  all  the 
Bachs,  from  the  time  when  Veit  Bach,  the 
old  baker  who  played  his  zither  while  his  miU 


36 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


was  running,  and  the  founder  of  the  family, 
travelled  into  Thuringia  from  Hungary,  that 
he  might  be  free  to  worship  God  as  he 
pleased.  They  were  all  musicians  ;  and  their 
love  of  music,  as  well  as  their  remarkable 
purity  of  sentiment  and  strength  of  family 
affection,  bound  them  closely  together.  At 
one  time  there  were  no  less  than  thirty  Bachs 
who  were  organists  in  Thuringia,  Franconia, 
and  Saxony.  Nothing  is  more  beautiful  in 
the  records  of  music  than  their  anniversary 
meetings,  upon  which  occasions  they  gathered 
together  from  all  parts  of  Germany,  and  en- 
joyed a  genuine  feast  of  music  in  singing  cho- 
rals and  folk-songs,  and  improvising.  No  jar 
or  disagreement  ever  disturbed  these  meetings. 
They  were  as  calm  and  peaceful  as  the  move- 
ment of  the  chorals  which  opened  and  closed 
them.  They  were  simple,  unaffected,  pious 
people,  remarkably  gifted  in  musical  knowl- 
edge, —  in  fact,  renowned  all  over  Germany  for 
their  skill,  —  and  yet  to  a  large  extent  living 
within  themselves,  and  depending  upon  their 
homes  for  their  enjoyment. 

Of  this  constellation,  Johann  Sebastian  Bach 
was  the  very  sun  and  centre.  He  seems  to 
have  had  none  o'f  the  contrarieties  or  eccentrici- 
ties which  have  characterized  so  many  other 


J  OH  ANN  SEBASTIAN  BACH. 


musical  geniuses.  His  mother  died  shortly 
after  he  was  born,  and  his  father  when  the 
boy  was  but  ten  years  of  age.  His  youth  was 
spent  in  the  home  of  his  elder  brother,  Johann 
Christoph,  an  organist  and  music-master,  who 
brought  him  up  with  an  austerity  of  discipline 
which  seems  very  harsh,  and  which  particu- 
larly manifested  itself,  for  some  unaccountable 
reason,  in  the  apparent  determination  to  crush 
out  his  musical  impulses  and  ambitions.  His 
severe  training,  however,  gave  him  self-reliance. 
He  grew  up  to  be  a  self-sustained,  evenly 
poised  man,  simple  and  unostentatious  in  his 
bearing,  strictly  honorable  in  his  intercourse 
with  men,  strong  and  unvarying  in  his  home 
love,  and  guided  in  every  event  of  life  by  a 
strict  morality  born  of  sincere  religion.  The 
spot  where  Luther  translated  the  Bible  into 
German  overlooked  his  native  place,  and  on 
the  same  spot  the  minnesingers  had  fought 
their  romantic  battles  of  song;  and  the  re- 
ligion of  the  one  and  the  romance  of  the 
other  affected  his  life  until  its  close.  He  was 
an  affectionate  father,  laboring  manfully  and 
incessantly  to  support  his  large  family  ;  a  good 
citizen,  faithfully  fulfilling  all  his  duties  and 
commanding  universal  respect ;  a  plain,  hum- 
ble man,  despising  rank  and  show,  making  no 


38  WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 

boast  of  his  grand  achievements,  and  yet  rec- 
ognized in  the  court  of  Frederick  the  Great 
as  above  courtiers  and  nobility,  by  the  title  of 
his  genius. 

Such  a  man,  domestic  by  nature,  spending 
most  of  his  time  and  doing  most  of  his  work 
at  home,  and,  more  than  all,  doing  this  work 
for  what  seems  now  a  beggarly  pittance, 
needed  for  a  companion  a  sensible,  practical, 
industrious,  and  economical  woman,  capable 
of  administering  the  affairs  of  the  family  in 
such  manner  that  his  musical  labor,  which  was 
incessant,  might  not  be  disturbed  by  house- 
hold cares,  or  solicitude  as  to  the  ability  of  the 
lean  family  purse  to  meet  the  demands  upon 
it.  Such  a  woman  he  found  in  his  cousin 
Maria  Barbara  Bach,  the  youngest  daughter 
of  Johann  Michael  Bach,  of  Gehren,  himself  a 
composer  of  no  mean  ability.  He  made  her 
acquaintance  in  Arnstadt,  where  he  was  ap- 
pointed first  organist  of  the  new  church  in 
1703.  He  was  at  that  time  too  poor  to 
marry;  but  the  attachment  between  them 
was  so  strong  that  they  mutually  agreed  to 
wait  until  a  position  lucrative  enough  to  sup- 
port them  should  offer  itself.  They  did  not 
have  to  wait  long.  In  1 706  he  was  success- 
ful in  obtaining  the  position  of  organist  of 


J  OH  ANN  SEBASTIAN  BACH. 


St.  Blasius  Church,  at  Mlihlhaiisen,  and  was 
left  free  to  fix  his  own  salary.  Although  upon 
the  verge  of  mamage,  the  contract  made  with 
the  town  authorities  shows  that  his  require- 
ments for  establishing  a  family  and  founding 
a  home  were  modest  in  the  extreme.  The 
contract  reads  :  "  Eighty-five  guldens  (a  little 
more  than  thirty-five  dollars),  three  makers  of 
corn,  two  clafters  of  wood  (one  of  beech  and 
one  of  other  wood),  and  six  schock  of  small 
firewood,  to  be  brought  to  his  door."  He 
also  requests  that  he  may  be  helped  "with 
the  loan  of  a  cart  in  bringing  his  furniture 
from  Arnstadt."  He  assumed  his  duties  at 
Miihlhausen  in  1707  ;  and  in  October  of  that 
year  he  and  Maria  Barbara  were  married, 
starting  in  life  with  the  modest  outfit  already 
mentioned.  Very  little  is  known  of  her,  ex- 
cept that  she  was  an  affectionate  and  dutiful 
wife,  of  even  temper  and  sunny  disposition, 
contented  with  her  lot,  and  so  prudent  and 
thrifty  in  her  management  that  the  home  of 
Johann  Sebastian  was  always  a  happy  one,  and 
his  musical  labors  were  never  disturbed  by 
the  interposition  of  household  troubles  and  an- 
noyances. She  died  in  1720,  during  Bach's 
absence  at  Carlsbad  with  Prince  Leopold,  and 
so  suddenly  that  no  news  of  it  reached  him 


40 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


until  after  she  was  buried.  She  bore  him  eight 
children,  five  sons  and  three  daughters,  — 
Carohne  Dorothea,  bom  in  1 708  ;  Wilhelm 
Friedemann,  bom  in  1710,  died  at  Berlin  in 
1784;  Carl  Philipp  Emanuel,  bom  in  1714, 
and  commonly  known  as  the  "  Berlin  Bach," 
who  died  at  Hamburg  in  1 788  ;  Johann  Gott- 
fried Bemhard,  bom  in  1715  ;  and  Leopold 
August,  bom  in  1 718.  In  addition  to  these, 
there  were  a  pair  of  twins,  who  died  before 
they  were  a  year  old ;  and  a  daughter,  who 
died  very  young. 

There  is  no  record  to  show  that  his  first 
wife  was  a  musician,  or  that  she  had  musical 
taste  or  feeling ;  but  it  is  on  record  that  the 
thirteen  years  of  hard  labor  and  of  incessant 
stmggle  with  the  necessities  of  life  were  years 
of  mutual  happiness,  respect,  and  affection. 
She  was  thrifty,  contented,  industrious,  and 
withal  unselfish,  —  qualities  which  are  very 
essential  to  happiness  in  hfe  on  an  income  of 
less  than  fifty  dollars  a  year  and  perquisites  of 
the  most  meagre  description.  We  may  there- 
fore conclude  that  Sebastian  Bach  sincerely 
mourned  the  loss  of  the  companion  so  sud- 
denly snatched  away  from  him.  His  situation 
in  life  was  such,  however,  that  he  could  not 
sorrow  long.    The  necessities  of  constant 


J  OH  ANN  SEBASTIAN  BACH.  41 

labor,  the  daily  recurrence  of  multifarious 
household  duties,  and  the  pressing  cares  of 
his  little  flock  of  children,  all  appealed  to  him 
to  supply  the  place  of  her  who  had  gone,  so 
that  he  might  be  relieved  of  these  exacting 
and  worrying  household  cares,  and  give  his 
sole  attention  to  his  art.  A  year  and  a  half 
after  her  death,  in  the  year  1721,  he  mar- 
ried Anna  Magdalena  Wiilkens,  the  young- 
est daughter  of  a  trumpeter,  court  musician 
to  the  Duke  of  Weissenfeld.  He  was  then 
thirty-six  years  of  age,  and  she  was  fifteen 
years  his  junior.  This  disparity  of  years, 
however,  never  threw  a  shadow  upon  the  af- 
fections of  the  two,  which  remained  beautiful 
and  undisturbed  until  his  death.  The  union 
was  a  perfect  one,  perhaps  more  perfect  than 
the  first ;  for,  in  addition  to  her  devotion  to 
household  duties  and  her  prudent  and  eco- 
nomical management  of  their  little  income, 
she  was  a  musician  of  exceptional  talent  and 
had  a  very  fine  voice.  His  income,  although 
larger  than  he  had  received  heretofore,  was 
still  small ;  for  two  years  after  his  marriage, 
when  he  signed  his  contracts  as  cantor  of  St. 
Thomas,  at  Leipzig,  his  yearly  stipend  was 
eighty-seven  thalers  and  twelve  groschen 
(about  sixty-five  dollars)  ;  sixteen  scheftel  of 


42 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


com;  thirteen  thalers,  three  groschen,  for  wood 
and  candles ;  one  thaler,  eight  groschen,  in- 
terest on  a  legacy ;  lodging  and  firewood  free. 
This  sum,  with  certain  fees  for  services  at 
marriages  and  funerals,  was  his  only  recom- 
pense for  the  arduous  labors  at  the  St.  Thomas 
School,  and  the  equally  arduous  labor  of  com- 
posing and  conducting  the  music  for  four 
churches=  Under  her  prudent  management, 
however,  they  lived  very  comfortably ;  and  a 
new  element  of  happiness  sprang  up  in  his 
home,  growing  out  of  her  knowledge  and 
love  of  music.  She  had  a  soprano  voice  of 
beautiful  quality,  and  a  knowledge  of  the  tech- 
nique of  music  of  such  a  decided  character 
that  for  five  years  after  her  marriage  she  and 
the  children  studied  with  Bach  in  thorough- 
bass and  piano  music  ;  the  father  finding  time 
in  the  midst  of  his  many  duties  to  give  them 
the  benefits  of  his  knowledge.  He  uTOte  out 
for  her  the  rules  of  thorough-bass  ;  and  there 
still  exists  a  testimonial  of  his  great  interest 
in  her  musical  progress  in  the  collection  of 
"  easy  pieces  for  the  piano,"  written  in  1722, 
and  inscribed  with  the  autograph,  "  Clavier 
Biichlein  vor  Anna  Magdalena  Bach."  Three 
years  later  he  had  completed  for  her  a  whole 
volume  of  music,  containing  forty-six  preludes, 


J  OH  ANN  SEBASTIAN  BACH.  43 

minuets,  rondos,  polonaises,  etc.,  thirty-five  of 
which  are  for  the  piano  ;  among  them  the  fa- 
vorite C  major  prelude,  No.  i  of  the  "  Wohl- 
temperirte  Clavier ;  "  five  chorals,  —  "  Wer 
nur  den  lieben  Gott  lasst  walten,"  "  Gieb  dich 
zufrieden,"  "  Schaff 's  mit  mir  Gott,"  "  Dir, 
Jehovah,  will  ich  singen,"  and  "  O  Ewigkeit, 
Du  Donnerwort ; "  and,  lastly,  seven  songs, 
followed  by  a  wedding  poem,  which  are  not 
only  of  peculiar  interest  because  they  were 
written  for  his  wife,  but  also  because  they  are 
the  only  short  songs,  not  of  a  sacred  char- 
acter, which  Bach  has  left.  To  these  songs 
Bach  probably  furnished  words  as  well  as 
music  ;  and  one  of  them,  the  ^'  Willst  du  dein 
Herz  mir  schenken,"  was  inspired  by  his  love 
for  her  in  the  days  of  their  brief  courtship. 
Nearly  all  of  them  are  filled  with  true  and 
tender  devotion,  none  more  so  than  that 
which  asks  the  question  so  happily  answered 
by  a  hfetime  of  love,  —  the  song  of  their 
courtship,  which  brought  them  together  in 
a  bond  of  love  too  strong  for  anything  but 
death  to  sever.  In  this  volume,  written  in 
figured  basses,  her  own  handiwork  appears, 
where  she  has  filled  in  the  chords ;  and  his 
corrections  scattered  through  them  leave  an 
interesting  and  touching  souvenir  of  the  great 


44 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


master,  and  the  pupil  who  was  to  him  the 
nearest  and  dearest  of  all. 

Bach  died  on  the  28th  of  July,  1750,  after 
long  and  keen  suffering,  during  the  midst  of 
which  he  did  not  cease  work.  Only  a  short 
time  before  his  death,  he  dictated  his  last 
work,  "  Wenn  wir  in  hochsten  Nothen  sein," 
—  a  choral  born  of  his  suffering  and  inspired 
by  his  religion,  a  touching  reflex  of  his  own 
pitiable  condition.  He  died  in  his  sleep,  and 
no  stone  marks  the  spot  in  the  Leipzig  church- 
yard where  his  body  rests.  The  only  record 
which  is  left  is  to  be  found  in  the  register  of 
deaths,  which  thus  affirms  :  "A  man,  age  67, 
M.  Johann  Sebastian  Bach,  Musical  Director 
and  Singing-Master  at  the  St.  Thomas  School, 
was  carried  to  his  grave  in  the  hearse,  July 
30,  1750."  His  widow  survived  him.  seven 
years,  supporting  herself  as  she  best  could 
upon  the  scanty  pension  granted  to  cantors, 
and  by  the  sale  of  her  husband's  manuscripts. 
She  bore  him  thirteen  children,  but  six  of 
whom  survived  their  father's  death,  —  among 
them,  Johann  Christoph  Friedrich,  born  in 
1732,  known  as  the  "Biickeburger  Bach;" 
and  Johann  Christian,  born  in  1735,  who 
became  famous  as  the  London  Bach."  Only 
one  daughter,  Regina  Susanna,  survived  the 


J  OH  ANN  SEBASTIAN  BACH. 


mother,  whose  extreme  poverty  aroused  a  wide- 
spread feehng  of  compassion,  which  took  the 
form  of  a  public  contribution  in  1801,  and 
becomes  more  than  usually  interesting,  as  it 
allies  the  name  of  Beethoven  with  that  of  Bach. 
On  the  19th  of  May,  1801,  Friedrich  Roch- 
htz,  one  of  Bach's  most  zealous  admirers, 
and  the  editor  of  the  Leipzig  "Allgemeine 
Musikzeitung,"  wTites  :  — 

Our  appeal  for  the  support  of  the  only 
survivor  of  the  Bach  family,  Sebastian  Bach's 
youngest  daughter,  has  not  been  overlooked  by 
the  public.  .  .  .  With  deep  emotion  we  received 
on  the  loth  of  May,  through  the  Viennese  musi- 
cian, Herr  Andreas  Streicher,  the  considerable 
sum  of  307  Viennese  florins,  exchanged  by  the 
banker  Lohr  of  this  city  for  200  Reichthaler 
from  the  undersigned  persons. 

The  collection  was  made  by  the  musician 
above  mentioned,  with  the  assistance  of  Count 
Fries  in  Vienna.  ...  At  the  same  time  the 
celebrated  Viennese  composer  and  pianist  Herr 
von  Beethoven,  volunteered  to  publish  one  of 
his  newest  works,  through  Messrs.  Breitkopf 
and  Hartel,  for  the  sole  benefit  of  Bach's  daugh- 
ter, that  the  good  old  woman  might  from  time 
to  time  derive  benefits  from  it,  at  the  same  time 
using  all  his  efforts  for  the  most  speedy  publi- 
cation possible,  that  she  may  not  perchance  die 
before  this  object  is  attained." 


46 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


Destiny  ordered  kindly  for  Sebastian  Bach 
in  the  arrangement  of  his  domestic  life  with 
reference  to  his  musical  creations.  Notwith- 
standing his  immense  and  incessant  labors, 
especially  in  connection  with  the  St.  Thomas 
School  and  the  Leipzig  churches,  the  cares 
and  troubles  naturally  created  by  such  a  large 
family  of  children,  and  the  small  compensation 
received  for  his  work,  his  Ufa  ran  smoothly, 
and  the  grand  monument  he  was  erecting  for 
posterity  never  suffered  either  in  its  fair  pro- 
portions or  its  complete  form.  At  the  outset 
of  his  career,  and  before  he  entered  upon  the 
really  great  work  of  his  life,  he  needed  for  a 
companion  a  thrifty,  prudent  woman,  of  even 
disposition  and  contented  nature ;  and  such 
a  one  he  found  in  his  cousin  Maria  Barbara. 
After  her  death,  and  when  his  name  had 
begun  to  be  known  as  a  great  organist  and 
composer  beyond  mere  local  limits,  he  still 
needed  a  thrifty  and  prudent  and  even- 
tempered  woman,  but,  still  more  than  this,  a 
woman  who  could  sympathize  with  him,  and 
encourage,  assist,  and  inspire  him  in  his  mu- 
sical labors ;  and  such  a  one  he  found  in 
Anna  Magdalena.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  the  second  marriage  was  the  happier, 
although  she  was  the  wife  of  his  prime,  and 


J  OH  ANN  SEBASTIAN  BACH. 


the  romance  of  youth  had  faded  away  before 
the  reahties  of  hfe,  with  so  many  of  which 
Bach  had  to  contend.  How  great  that  in- 
spiration was  his  music  shows.  It  is  doubly 
inscribed.  First,  hke  Haydn,  he  ^^TOte  upon 
his  scores  his  reverence  to  God,  —  S.  D.  G. 
{Soli  Deo  Gloria)^ — and  then  his  love  for 
his  wife. 


GEORGE  FREDERICK  HANDEL. 


Remember  Handel !  who  that  was  not  born 
Deaf  as  the  dead  to  harmony,  forgets. 
Or  can,  the  more  than  Homer  of  his  age  ? 

COWPER. 

T  is  said  by  all  his  biographers  that 
Handel  was  never  a  victim  of  the 
tender  passion,  though  many  ladies 
paid  homage  to  his  genius  by  laying  siege  to 
his  heart.  There  was  one  love,  however,  in 
the  manifestation  of  which  he  was  both  ar- 
dent and  constant ;  that  was  his  love  for 
his  mother.  Handel's  father,  George,  had 
studied  the  rude  surgery  of  the  time,  with 
Christoph  Oettinger,  the  town  barber  of 
Halle,  and  eventually  married  his  widow, 
Frau  Anna  Oettinger,  Feb.  20,  1643,  and 
continued  the  business  of  his  employer. 
Frau  Anna  gave  birth  to  six  children,  and 


GEORGE  FREDERICK  HANDEL.  49 

died  in  1682,  at  the  advanced  age  of  seventy- 
two.  In  less  than  six  months  the  bereaved 
husband  contracted  a  second  marriage  with 
Dorothea,  daughter  of  Pastor  Taust,  of  Gie- 
bichenstein,  who  is  described  by  Rochstro  as 
"  a  lady  equally  respected  for  the  gentleness 
of  her  demeanor,  her  loving  submission  to 
parental  and  conjugal  authority,  her  earnest 
piety,  and  her  reverence  for,  and  intimate 
acquaintance  with,  the  text  and  teaching  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  —  qualities  which  were 
all  faithfully  reproduced  in  the  character  of 
her  children."  These  children  were  a  son 
who  died  at  birth ;  two  daughters,  Dorothea 
Sophie  and  Johanna  Christiana ;  and  George 
Frederick,  the  subject  of  this  sketch.  Al- 
though the  family  was  not  an  artistic  one  in 
any  sense,  —  indeed,  the  father  was  so  averse 
to  music  that  he  declared  he  would  have  no 
such  "jingling  "  in  the  house,  —  his  childhood 
was  a  happy  one.  The  old  surgeon  was  reso- 
lutely bent  upon  making  a  lawyer  of  his  son  ; 
but  as  usual  the  maternal  instincts  appre- 
hended the  true  bent  of  the  boy's  passion, 
and  we  may  well  imagine  that  she  found 
more  than  one  way  to  encourage  him,  in 
spite  of  the  father's  opposition.  The  same 
authority  quoted  above  says  he  was  "the 
4 


50 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


fondest  hope  of  a  mother,  to  whose  ten- 
der solicitude  he  owed  the  training  which, 
through  all  the  trials  and  vicissitudes  of  a 
long  and  more  than  ordinarily  eventful  life, 
kept  him  honest  and  just  and  true,  and  se- 
cured him  the  respect  of  princes,  and  the 
affection  of  all  who  were  not  blinded  by  jeal- 
ousy to  the  splendor  of  his  genius  and  the 
depth  of  his  moral  worth."  She  superin- 
tended his  education,  and  prepared  him  for 
his  life- struggle  with  tender  devotion,  even 
stinting  herself,  after  his  father's  death,  to 
provide  him  with  the  means  of  continuing 
his  musical  studies.  Although  it  has  been 
said  of  him,  by  some  of  the  earher  biogra- 
phers, that  his  social  affections  were  not  very 
strong,  he  was  not  lacking  in  filial  piety.  In 
June,  1725,  he  writes  a  very  cordial  letter 
from  London  to  his  brother-in-law  at  Halle, 
expressing  his  deep  regret  that  he  cannot 
spare  time  to  visit  his  mother.  "  I  cannot  be 
so  ungrateful,"  he  says,  as  to  pass  over  in 
silence  the  goodness  you  have  shown  to  my 
mother  in  her  advanced  age,  for  which  I 
offer  you  my  very  humble  thanks.  You 
know  how  deeply  I  am  interested  in  all  that 
concerns  her,  and  can  therefore  judge  the 
depth  of  the  obligation  under  which  you  have 


GEORGE  FREDERICK  HANDEL.  51 

placed  me."  He  was  always  loyal  in  his  af- 
fection for  her,  and  in  his  numerous  journeys 
never  failed  to  find  time  to  visit  her.  While 
in  Venice  in  1729,  he  received  a  letter  from 
his  brother-in-law,  informing  him  that  his 
mother  had  been  seized  with  a  paralytic  at- 
tack. He  hurried  to  Halle  with  all  possible 
despatch,  and  found  her  sufficiently  recovered 
to  be  able  to  walk  about,  though  she  had  lost 
her  sight  and  could  only  recognize  him  by 
the  pressure  of  the  hand.  The  meeting  was 
a  very  sorrowful  one  to  both,  though  mutual 
love  lightened  the  pain.  A  year  afterward 
she  died  suddenly,  while  Handel  was  in  Lon- 
don ;  and  in  the  funeral  oration  delivered  over 
her  grave,  this  love  which  had  so  strongly  af- 
fected their  lives  was  particularly  dwelt  upon. 
In  his  reply  to  the  letter  informing  him  of  her 
death,  Handel  gives  still  another  evidence  of 
his  great  love  for  the  mother  to  whom  he 
owed  so  much.    He  says  :  — 

"I  cannot  yet  restrain  my  tears.  But  it  has 
pleased  the  Most  High  to  enable  me  to  submit 
with  Christian  calmness  to  his  holy  will.  Your 
thoughtfulness  will  never  pass  from  my  remem- 
brance until,  after  this  life,  we  are  once  more 
united,  which  may  the  All-good  God  in  his 
mercy  grant  us  !  " 


52 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


The  loving  mother  prepared  him  for  his 
career,  and  upon  its  very  threshold  he  again 
experienced  the  beneficence  of  woman's  in- 
fluence. Friedrich,  the  Elector  of  Branden- 
burg, afterward  King  Friedrich  I.  of  Prussia, 
was  a  generous  patron  of  arts.  His  consort, 
the  Electress  Sophie  Charlotte,  who  was  sub- 
sequently styled  the  "  Philosophic  Queen," 
was  not  only  a  warm  friend  of  artists,  but  was 
herself  one  of  the  most  accomplished  musi- 
cians in  Europe,  and  more  than  once  occu- 
pied the  conductor's  desk  in  concerts  and 
at  operatic  performances.  The  Electoral  pal- 
ace was  the  favorite  resort  of  artists  from  all 
parts  of  Europe,  and  thither  Handel  was  sent 
as  a  child.  He  was  most  kindly  received  by 
the  Electress.  She  was  delighted  with  his  per- 
formances, introduced  him  to  prominent  artists 
who  gave  him  many  valuable  hints,  —  among 
them,  Ariosti  and  Buononcini,  —  and  at  last  of- 
fered to  take  him  into  the  service  of  the  Court, 
send  him  free  of  expense  to  Italy  to  complete 
his  education,  and  upon  his  return  to  give  him 
an  important  position.  His  father,  however, 
declined  the  offer.  Hamburg  meanwhile  was 
rapidly  competing  with  Berlin  as  an  art  centre  ; 
and  after  the  death  of  the  generous  Electress, 
thither  went  Handel  to  continue  his  studies. 


GEORGE  FREDERICK  HANDEL.  53 


About  this  time  an  odd  experience  befell 
him,  and  all  the  more  comical  when  his  aver- 
sion to  matrimony  is  considered.  Buxtehude, 
the  veteran  organist  at  Liibeck,  was  about  to 
retire  from  his  position,  and  the  place  was  of- 
fered for  competition.  Handel,  in  company 
with  IMattheson,  the  principal  tenor  of  the 
Hamburg  Theatre,  went  to  Liibeck  to  com- 
pete for  it.  Mattheson  himself  relates  their 
experiences  :  — 

"  We  played  on  almost  tvery  organ  and 
harpsichord  in  the  place,  and  with  regard  to 
our  performances,  agreed  between  ourselves  that 
he  should  play  only  upon  the  organ  and  I  upon 
the  harpsichord.  We  listened  also  to  the  vet- 
eran performer,  in  the  Marienkirche,  with  deep 
attention.  But  because  the  question  of  succes- 
sion involved  also  that  of  a  marriage  contract,  into 
which  we  neither  of  us  had  the  slightest  desire 
to  enter,  we  left  the  place,  after  receiving  many 
compliments,  unusual  honors,  and  very  pleasant 
entertainment.  Johann  Christian  Schieferdecker 
afterward  brought  the  affair  to  a  more  satisfac- 
tory conclusion  :  accepted  the  bride,  after  the 
death  of  her  father,  Buxtehude,  in  1707,  and 
obtained  the  coveted  appointment." 

The  royal  ladies  of  the  English  Court  were 
the  devoted  friends  of  Handel.  He  had  a 
handsome  pension  from  the  bounty  of  Queen 


54 


WOMAN  /N  MUSIC. 


Anne.  When  George  I.  succeeded  to  the 
throne,  he  and  the  royal  family  were  regular 
attendants  at  the  theatre  whenever  his  operas 
were  given.  Eventually  the  King  added  a 
second  pension  of  £^200  a  year,  and  ap- 
pointed him  music-master  to  the  daughters 
of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  afterward  George  II., 
which  brought  him  a  third  pension  of  ^200 
from  the  private  purse  of  the  Princess,  after- 
ward Queen  Caroline.  Her  death,  in  1737, 
deprived  him  of  one  of  his  most  devoted 
friends.  How  deeply  he  was  attached  to  her 
is  evidenced  by  the  exquisitely  beautiful  an- 
them he  wrote  for  her  funeral,  "  The  Ways  of 
Zion  do  mourn."  He  gave  lessons  to  all  the 
children  of  the  royal  family.  The  Princess 
Anne  was  devotedly  attached  to  him ;  and 
when  she  left  England,  her  last  act  of  kind- 
ness to  him  was  to  commend  him  to  the  favor 
of  Lord  Harvey,  a  favorite  of  the  Queen. 
This  royal  favor  must  have  been  particularly 
grateful  to  him,  as  it  was  bestowed  at  a  time 
when  his  Italian  rivals  were  organizing  cabals 
against  him  and  seeking  in  every  way  to  under- 
mine and  ruin  him.  And  yet,  indebted  as  he 
was  to  them,  he  never  restrained  his  temper 
when  they  violated  the  proprieties.  Schoel- 
cher  relates  the  following  incident :  — 


GEORGE  FREDERICK:  HANDEL.  55 


"At  the  concerts  which  he  conducted  for 
Frederick,  Prince  of  Wales,  if  the  Prince  and 
his  wife  were  not  punctual  to  the  stated  time, 
we  are  told  that  the  conductor  used  to  be  very 
violent ;  and  the  son  of  George  II.  —  to  his  great 
honor  be  it  said  —  respected  him  too  much  to  be 
offended.  If  the  ladies  of  the  Princess  talked 
instead  of  listening,  his  rage  was  uncontrollable, 
and  sometimes  carried  him  to  the  length  of 
swearing  and  caUing  names,  even  in  the  pres- 
ence of  royalty;  whereupon  the  gentle  Princess, 
who  loved  him  much,  would  say  to  the  talkative 
ones  :  '  Hush  !  hush  !  Handel  is  in  a  passion.'" 

Another  instance  of  his  terrible  temper  is 
related  by  Rochstro  :  — 

At  the  first  rehearsal  of '  Ottone,'  Francesca 
Cuzzoni  flatly  refused  to  sing  the  lovely  aria 
'  Falsa  immagine,'  which  Handel  had  written 
expressly  for  her.  Said  Handel  :  '  I  know,  Ma- 
dame, that  you  are  a  very  devil,  but  I  will  let 
you  see  that  I  am  Beelzebub,  the  prince  of 
devils ; '  and  with  that  he  seized  her  in  his  arms 
and  threatened  to  throw  her  out  of  the  window, 
whereupon  she  yielded  in  terror  to  his  superior 
will,  sang  the  song  in  exact  accordance  with  his 
directions,  and  achieved  in  it  one  of  her  most 
brilHant  triumphs." 

In  view  of  his  success  with  refractory  song- 
stresses, one  is  disposed  to  wish  that  the  con- 
ductors of  our  own  time  had  an  equally  healthy 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


discipline  in  the  ranks  of  their  capricious  and 
moody  prime  do7ine. 

Handel,  as  has  akeady  been  said,  was  averse 
to  matrimony.  More  than  this,  he  was  not 
very  social  by  nature  and  not  at  all  domestic 
in  his  habits.  His  complete  devotion  to  his 
art,  his  impatience  with  whatever  crossed  him, 
his  hot  temper,  and  the  peculiar  idiosyncra- 
sies of  his  nature  illy  fitted  him  to  make  any 
woman  happy ;  hence  it  was  fortunate  that  he 
was  never  in  love  with  any  of  the  sex  except 
his  mother.  In  his  long  and  eventful  career 
he  was  constantly  associated  with  ladies,  and 
was  much  admired  by  them  ;  but  none  of 
them  touched  his  heart.  It  is  said  by  his 
biographers  that  he  spent  many  of  his  after- 
noons at  the  organ  of  St.  Paul's,  in  the  midst 
of  his  admirers,  and  at  night  resorted  to  the 
Queen's  Arms,  a  tavern  near  by,  where  he 
played  the  harpsichord,  smoked  his  pipe,  and 
drank  his  beer.  As  he  became  more  absorbed 
in  his  compositions  he  cut  loose  from  all  so- 
ciety, and  only  associated  with  three  intimate 
friends,  not  one  of  whom  had  musical  tastes. 
His  chief  amusement  was  to  visit  exhibitions 
of  pictures.    Hawkins  says  of  him  :  — 

"  His  social  affections  were  not  very  strong, 
and  to  this  it  may  be  imputed  that  he  spent  his 


GEORGE  FREDERICK  HANDEL. 


whole  life  in  ceHbacy.  No  impertineiit  visits  and 
few  engagements  to  parties  of  pleasure  were  suf- 
fered to  interrupt  the  coarse  of  his  studies." 

He  had  no  passion  except  for  music,  and 
yet  the  opportunities  for  the  exercise  of  the 
all-engrossing  passion  were  not  lacking.  While 
he  was  in  Italy,  being  then  in  his  twenty-fourth 
year,  the  Prince  of  Tuscany,  brother  of  the 
Grand  Duke  John  Gaston  de  Medicis,  was 
present  at  performances  of  his  operas  "Al- 
meria  "  and  "  Florinda,"  and  was  so  delighted 
with  them  that  he  gave  him  an  invitation  to 
go  to  Florence.  When  the  opportunity  came 
he  went  there  and  brought  out  the  opera  of 
"  Roderigo,"  written  for  the  occasion,  for 
which  he  was  honored  by  the  Grand  Duke 
with  a  present  in  money  and  a  service  of 
plate.  It  was  often  the  custom  at  that  day 
for  the  ladies  of  the  Courts  to  sing  in  the 
works  produced  in  the  royal  presence ;  and 
upon  this  occasion  the  Archduchess  Vittoria, 
a  beautiful  woman,  took  the  principal  role. 
Bumey  describes  her  as  "  a  songstress  of  great 
talent."  She  conceived  so  \-iolent  a  passion 
for  him  that  she  even  followed  him  from  Flor- 
ence to  Venice,  and  literally  demanded  that 
he  should  marry  her,  after  he  had  manifested  a 
repugnance  to  her  approaches.    The  choleric 


58 


WOMAN  m  MUSIC. 


Handel,  however,  repelled  her  suit  with  dis- 
dain, and  she  gave  up  the  chase.  His  de- 
cision, or  rather  his  indifference,  fortunately 
saved  him  from  disastrous  consequences,  as 
the  lady  who  had  been  so  importunate  was 
the  mistress  of  the  Prince  who  had  invited 
him  to  Florence. 

The  author  of  the  "  Anecdotes  of  Handel  " 
also  relates  the  following  incidents,  in  which 
he  was  a  party  of  the  second  part :  — 

"  When  he  was  young,  two  of  his  scholars, 
ladies  of  considerable  fortune,  were  so  much 
enamoured  of  him  that  each  was  desirous  of  a 
matrimonial  alliance.  The  first  is  said  to  have 
fallen  a  victim  to  her  attachment.  Handel  would 
have  married  her,  but  his  pride  was  stung  by 
the  coarse  declaration  of  her  mother,  that  she 
never  would  consent  to  the  marriage  of  her 
daughter  with  a  fiddler;  and,  indignant  at  the 
expression,  he  declined  all  further  intercourse. 
After  the  death  of  the  mother  the  father  renewed 
the  acquaintance,  and  informed  him  that  all  ob- 
stacles were  removed,  but  he  replied  that  the 
time  was  now  past ;  and  the  young  lady  fell  into 
a  decline,  which  soon  terminated  her  existence. 
The  second  attachment  was  a  lady  splendidly 
related,  whose  hand  he  might  have  obtained  by 
renouncing  his  profession.  That  condition  he 
resolutely  refused,  and  laudably  declined  the 
connection  which  was  to  prove  a  restriction  on 
the  great  faculties  of  his  mind." 


GEORGE  FREDERICK  HANDEL.  59 

It  may  be  remarked  that  the  first  story  does 
not  comport  with  the  well-known  character 
of  Handel,  and  as  it  is  not  mentioned  in  any 
of  his  biographies,  may  be  set  down  as  one  of 
those  popular  romances  which  attach  to  the 
careers  of  all  geniuses.  The  second,  how- 
ever, is  characteristic  of  him,  though  it  is  to 
be  regretted  that  the  details  of  his  refusal  are 
not  given.  It  would  be  refreshing  to  know 
what  the  irascible  composer  would  have  said 
to  the  proposition  that  he  should  exchange 
his  music  for  a  wife.  No  woman  touched 
him  so  nearly  as  to  affect  his  music ;  and 
yet,  without  his  mother's  warm  affection  and 
sympathy  for  him  in  his  unartistic  home, 
and  her  determination  that  he  should  follow 
the  course  he  had  marked  out  for  himself,  he 
would  have  lost  many  of  his  early  advantages. 
Had  it  not  been  also  for  the  devoted  friend- 
ship and  generous  support  of  good  Queen 
Caroline  and  the  princesses  of  her  Court,  he 
would  have  fared  badly,  in  England,  at  the 
hands  of  his  Italian  rivals. 


LUDWIG  VAN  BEETHOVEN. 

He  lived  in  the  ideal  world  which  Petrarch  and 
Dante  described,  and  his  passion  took  nothing  from 
his  austerity.  Unable  to  marry,  he  remained  chaste ; 
and  he  loved  as  purely  as  he  wrote.  He  hated  li- 
centious speech,  and  blamed  the  "  Don  Giovanni  "  of 
Mozart,  because  a  thing  so  holy  as  art  should  not 
so  prostitute  itself  as  to  serve  to  link  together  so 
scandalous  a  story.  —  M.  Taine. 

ENZ  says  in  one  of  his  rhapsodies  : 
"  In  the  arts  the  animating  or  life- 
giving  element  is  furnished  by  the 
sentiment  of  love."  In  music  it  finds  its 
highest  and  truest  expression,  and  in  no 
music  more  clearly  than  in  the  immortal 
works  of  Beethoven.  No  other  creation  in 
tones  has  done  so  much  to  dignify  and  en- 
noble love  as  his  one  opera,  "  Fidelio  ;  "  no 
song  has  so  expressed  its  beauty  and  its  ardor 


LUDWIG  VAN  BEETHOVEN.  6 1 

as  that  most  perfect  amatory  l)Tic,  the  "  Ade- 
laide." If  the  passion  of  love  which  is  pic- 
tured in  these  two  works  and  in  nearly  all  the 
others  which  he  created,  whether  song,  sonata, 
or  symphony,  and  the  ardent  aspiration  as  well 
as  profound  self-abasement  of  religion  which 
characterize  the  Second  Mass  and  clothe  its 
measures  with  the  divine  presence,  had  been 
wanting  in  his  life,  it  is  almost  unquestionable 
that  he  would  have  yielded  in  the  bitter  strug- 
gle with  adverse  circumstances,  and  that  he 
would  not  remain  to-day  as  the  one  composer 
to  whom  all  the  world  does  homage.  No 
musician  has  ever  so  completely  imbued  his 
music  with  feeling,  —  that  feeling  which  im- 
plies sympathy  with  passion  in  all  its  heights 
and  depths,  with  the  inner  life  of  humanity, 
with  the  noblest  fomis  of  emotion  in  man,  and 
with  the  grandest  aspects  of  Nature,  —  that 
feeling  which  could  not  have  existed  without 
this  great  underlying  principle  of  love,  joined 
with  a  naturally  reverential  and  devotional 
habit  of  being. 

Beethoven's  life  was  a  battle  with  circum- 
stances, commenced  in  his  boyhood,  end- 
ing only  on  his  death-bed,  and  fitly  t}pified 
by  the  fearful  thunders  and  lightnings  of 
the  storm  that  raged  about  him  in  his  last 


62 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


moments.  The  dissipations  of  his  father, 
a  drunken  musician,  cast  a  gloom  over  his 
earher  hfe.  The  drudgery  and  the  misery 
of  his  home  fostered  a  misanthropic  feeling. 
The  want  of  general  and  liberal  culture  which 
he  might  have  had  under  more  favorable  cir- 
cumstances annoyed  him  all  through  hfe.  In 
the  midst  of  the  corrupt  society  of  Vienna  he 
had  led  a  blameless  career;  but  even  this 
could  not  save  him  from  feeling  the  wretched 
effects  of  this  corruption  in  his  own  family. 
His  nephew  Karl  was  left  to  his  care  by  his 
father ;  but  to  secure  the  boy,  whom  he  loved 
as  if  he  were  his  son,  he  had  to  prove  that 
the  mother  was  a  dissolute  woman.  He 
abandoned  his  bachelor  habits,  and  com- 
menced housekeeping  on  the  boy's  account ; 
he  hoarded  up  his  money  to  educate  him ; 
he  lavished  his  affection  upon  him  ;  and  the 
graceless  wretch  requited  it  all  by  the  most 
infamous  career  of  dissipation,  making  the 
uncle  all  the  more  suspicious  and  misan- 
thropic. From  this  point  on,  the  story  is  one 
of  the  most  pitiful  kind.  Painful  physical 
troubles  set  in  one  after  the  other,  the  most 
painful  being  his  deafness,  which  so  increased 
upon  him  that  in  the  latter  years  of  his  life, 
during  which  he  produced  his  greatest  works, 


LUDWIG  VAN  BEETHOVEN.  63 


—  the  Mass  in  D,  the  Choral  Symphony,  and 
the  last  sonatas  and  quartets,  —  he  could  hear 
nothing.  Miser  et  pauper  sum, he  writes 
in  his  journal  at  this  time.  Over  his  sonata 
for  violoncello,  Op.  59,  he  writes,  Liter  la- 
crymas  et  hutitrn.'"  Where  in  all  history  is 
there  a  sadder  wail  of  despair,  a  more  pitiable 
outburst  of  grief,  than  is  to  be  found  in  his 
utterance  :  "  I  have  drunk  to  the  dregs  a  cup 
of  bitter  sorrow,  and  already  earned  martyr- 
dom in  art"?  or  in  this  extract  from  a  letter 
to  his  friend  Wegeler  :  — 

"  How  often  have  I  cursed  my  existence ! 
Plutarch  has  led  me  to  resignation.  I  will,  if 
possible,  set  fate  at  defiance,  although  there 
must  be  moments  in  my  life  when  I  shall  be  the 
most  unhappy  of  God's  creatures.  I  entreat  you 
to  say  nothing  of  my  affliction  to  any  one,  not 
even  to  Lorchen.  .  .  .  Resignation !  what  a  mis- 
erable refuge !  and  yet  it  is  my  sole  remaining 
one." 

In  the  midst  of  this  life,  in  which  this  mu- 
sical colossus  was  not  only  struggling  with 
painful  physical  ailments  and  severe  mental 
troubles,  but  was  also  annoyed  with  a  swarm 
of  petty  household  discomforts  brought  upon 
himself  by  his  love  for  his  worthless  nephew, 
there  are  episodes  upon  which  it  is  pleasant 


64 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


to  dwell,  growing  out  of  his  relations  to  the 
other  sex,  of  whom,  most  unquestionably,  he 
was  a  passionate  though  very  diffusive  ad- 
mirer; and  just  as  his  inner  life  developed 
more  and  more  grandly,  as  his  deafness  com- 
pelled him  to  retire  within  himself,  and  gave 
birth  to  his  most  sublime  creations,  so  the  in- 
fluence of  woman,  previous  to  this  time,  had 
aroused  in  him  a  wonderful  sense  of  beauty 
and  depth  of  tenderness,  which  were  helping 
to  prepare  the  way  for  the  more  majestic  and 
enduring  works  which  were  to  crown  the  close 
of  his  remarkable  career. 

Beethoven's  earliest  attachment  was  to  the 
Breuning  family  in  Bonn,  who  were  held  in 
the  highest  esteem  in  that  city.  They  were 
among  his  earliest  friends  and  protectors,  and 
they  clove  to  him  to  the  last.  Frau  von 
Breuning  took  a  deep  interest  in  him,  and  he 
regarded  her  in  the  sacred  light  of  a  mother. 
Her  son  Stephen  was  one  of  his  warmest 
friends ;  likewise  Eleanore,  the  daughter,  who 
subsequently  married  Dr.  Wegeler,  then  his 
friend,  and  after  his  death  his  biographer. 
Some  writers,  more  particularly  those  of  the 
Rau  and  "  Furioso  "  class,  who  have  rhapso- 
dized over  the  memory  of  a  man  in  whose 
life  there  was  not  a  trace  of  romance,  have 


LUDWIG  VAN  BEETHOVEN.  65 


sought  to  make  it  appear  that  Eleanore  was 
Beethoven's  first  love  ;  but  there  is  nothing 
in  his  relations  to  her,  or  in  his  correspondence 
with  her  or  with  the  family,  that  indicates  any 
sentiment  on  his  part  except  that  of  warm  and 
exalted  friendship.  After  a  year's  absence 
from  the  family,  during  which  there  had  been 
an  estrangement  between  them,  he  writes  to 
Eleanore  from  Vienna  (Nov.  2,  1793)  :  — 

"  Little  as  I  may  deserve  favor  in  your  eyes, 
believe  me,  my  dear  friend  (let  me  still  call  you 
so),  I  have  suffered  and  still  suffer  severely  from 
the  privation  of  your  friendship.  Never  can  I 
forget  you  and  your  dear  mother." 

And  with  this  letter  he  sends  her,  as  a  souve- 
nir, his  variations  upon  the  "  Se  vuol  ballare  " 
of  Mozart.  Nothing  more  ardent  than  ex- 
pressions of  this  kind  appear  in  any  of  his 
letters  to  her.  It  was  in  the  Breuning  house 
that  he  always  found  shelter  from  the  mis- 
ery and  squalor  of  his  own  home.  It  was 
through  this  family  that  he  first  made  acquaint- 
ance with  German  literature  and  the  poets, 
whose  creations  he  so  often  set  to  music,  and 
whose  lofty  and  majestic  spirit  is  so  clearly 
reflected  in  his  larger  works.  All  the  mem- 
bers of  the  family  were  musical,  Frau  von 
Breuning  not  the  least  so ;  and  it  was  her 
5 


66 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


Strong  influence  that  kept  him  at  work,  and 
directed  his  genius  in  the  highest  and  best 
ways.  She  understood  his  eccentric  moods, 
and  could  make  allowance  for  them.  She 
knew  when  to  urge  him  on  to  his  best  en- 
deavor, how  to  encourage  him,  and  how  to 
manage  his  resdess,  wayward,  and  gloomy  dis- 
position. This  woman,  more  than  all  others, 
helped  to  lay  the  broad  and  strong  founda- 
tion upon  which  Beethoven's  fame  now  rests  ; 
and  to  her,  more  than  to  any  other,  should 
be  due  the  credit  for  the  lofty  position  he 
holds  in  the  world  of  music.  He  came  to  her 
as  a  son  would  come  to  his  mother  for  aid  and 
counsel ;  and  she,  better  than  all  others,  un- 
derstood him.  She  foresaw  his  future,  because 
she  recognized  his  genius ;  and  she  not  only 
urged  him  on  to  the  accomplishment  of  its 
mission,  but  she  helped  to  direct  it  in  the  right 
course  by  supplying  it  with  the  noblest  and 
most  dignified  examples  of  art  for  study. 

While  there  was  no  more  ardent  feeling  than 
that  of  friendship  in  the  breast  of  Beethoven 
towards  the  Breuning  family,  there  came  one 
day  into  the  circle  a  friend  of  Eleanore's  who 
aroused  the  first  manifestation  of  love  on 
his  part.  It  was  a  sudden  flame,  suddenly 
extinguished.      The   friend   was  Jeannette 


LUDWIG  VAN  BEETHOVEN.  67 

d'Honrath,  a  young  lady  of  Cologne,  who  was  a 
frequent  visitor  at  the  Breuning  house,  a  beau- 
tiful blonde,  a  person  of  amiable  disposition,  a 
good  singer,  and  a  confirmed  coquette  withal. 
She  bestowed  her  favor  so  equally  between 
Beethoven  and  Stephen  Breuning,  and  yet  so 
deftly,  that  each  believed  himself  to  be  an 
accepted  lover.  She  laid  sportive  siege  to 
the  infatuated  Beethoven  with  a  well-known 
song  of  that  day, — 

"  What !  part  with  thee  this  very  day  ? 
My  heart  a  thousand  times  says,  Nay!" 

And  when  he  was  away,  the  same  song  did 
good  service  for  Stephen.  Thus  each  victim 
was  enmeshed  in  the  fair  singer's  toils,  un- 
known to  the  other ;  and  it  was  not  until  she 
had  flitted  away,  with  much  feigned  regret, 
that  the  two  luckless  suitors  discovered  she 
was  affianced  all  this  time  to  a  young  Austrian 
officer.  Major  Greth,  whom  she  afterward 
married,  and  who  subsequently  rose  to  the 
rank  of  general.  The  fair  Jeannette  and  her 
gallant  husband  passed  away  in  due  time,  and, 
like  many  other  nobodies,  have  come  down  to 
posterity  by  virtue  of  some  slight  connection 
with  Beethoven.  It  is  to  be  presumed  that 
neither  Ludwig  nor  Stephen  brooded  long 


68 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


over  their  slight  at  the  hands  of  the  Cologne 
beauty,  since  we  find  them  not  long  after- 
ward paying  assiduous  court  in  the  train  of 
suitors  and  admirers  that  thronged  about  Bar- 
bara Koch,  the  beauty  of  Bonn.  Her  mother, 
a  widow,  kept  a  coffee-house  which  was  the 
favorite  resort  of  professors  and  students.  The 
fair  Barbara  herself  was  a  very  cultivated  per- 
son, and  she  drew  about  her  those  of  like  char- 
acter; and  in  the  pleasant  evenings  at  the 
coffee-house,  art,  philosophy,  and  music  were 
discussed,  all  having  a  direct  bearing  upon 
the  future  development  of  the  young  musi- 
cian. There  is  nothing  to  indicate  that  the 
acquaintance  left  any  lasting  impression  upon 
him ;  though  he  corresponded  with  her  after 
he  had  left  Bonn,  as  we  find,  in  a  letter  to 
Eleanore  von  Breuning,  who  was  her  friend, 
his  complaint  that  he  had  written  twice  to 
Barbara  and  she  had  not  answered,  which 
may  be  accounted  for  by  her  marriage  not 
long  after  to  Count  Anton  von  Belderbusch, 
in  whose  family  she  had  previously  served  as 
governess. 

Wegeler,  his  biographer,  says  of  him,  "  Bee- 
thoven war  immer  in  Liebesverhaltnissen ;  " 
and  he  himself  said  that  he  once  loved  the 
same  woman  for  seven  whole  months,  —  not  a 


LUDWIG  VAN  BEETHOVEN.  69 


flippant  remark,  as  would  seem  at  the  first 
glance,  but  indicating  a  mood  of  his  being 
which  may  well  be  described  in  his  own 
words :  — 

"  I  was  born  with  a  passionate  and  excitable 
temperament;  I  am  keenly  susceptible  to  the 
pleasures  of  society  ;  my  heart  and  mind  were, 
even  from  childhood,  prone  to  the  most  tender 
feelings  of  affection." 

With  such  a  temperament,  one  may  well 
fancy  that  the  Hst  of  his  attachments  was  a  long 
one  ]  though  the  most  of  them  were  by  no 
means  serious,  since  it  was  his  fate  as  a  rule  to 
bestow  them  upon  ladies  whose  rank  forbade 
any  possibiHty  of  requital.  These  must  be 
passed  over  lightly,  though  in  the  case  of  some 
there  is  a  degree  of  interest  attaching  to  them 
that  warrants  a  detailed  consideration.  They 
were  nearly  all  his  pupils.  Among  them  was 
Mile,  de  Gerardi,  of  whom  we  know  very 
little,  who  laid  siege  to  the  susceptible  Bee- 
thoven in  verse,  but  without  any  more  practical 
result  than,  as  he  says  in  a  letter,  his  serious 
annoyance.  The  young  Baroness  von  Dross- 
dich,  a  somewhat  volatile  and  eccentric  person 
whom  he  addresses  in  his  letters  as  "  My 
esteemed  Th^rese,"  was  a  favorite  with  him. 
In  a  letter  written  in  1809,  he  urges  her  not 


70 


IVOMAIV  IN  MUSIC. 


to  forget  her  music,  and  mentions  sending 
her  several  of  his  compositions.  Upon  one 
occasion  he  paid  her  a  visit  at  Modling,  and, 
not  finding  her  at  home,  tore  a  sheet  of  music- 
paper  from  a  book,  wrote  upon  it  some  music 
for  her,  set  to  a  verse  of  Matthisson's,  and  on 
the  reverse  dedicated  it  "  To  my  dear  The- 
rese."  The  close  of  the  letter  to  which  I 
have  referred  clearly  shows  the  strength  of 
his  regard  for  her  :  — 

"  Farewell,  my  esteemed  Therese.  I  wish 
you  all  the  good  and  charm  that  life  can  offer. 
Think  of  me  kindly,  and  forget  my  follies.  Rest 
assured  that  no  one  would  more  rejoice  to  hear 
of  your  happiness,  even  were  you  to  feel  no  in- 
terest in  your  devoted  servant  and  friend." 

After  his  rupture  with  Therese,  another  in- 
timate affection  consoled  him  for  her  absence. 
In  1811  his  pecuniary  troubles  and  physical 
ailments  influenced  him  to  quit  Vienna  for  a 
time.  His  first  thought  was  to  go  to  Italy ; 
but  by  the  advice  of  his  physicians  he  changed 
his  intentions,  and  selected  Teplitz,  the  Httle 
Bohemian  town,  where  two  years  later  the 
King  of  Prussia  and  the  Emperors  of  Austria 
and  Russia  signed  the  treaty  of  the  Tloly 
Alliance.  It  was  always  a  favorite  resort  with 
artists  and  the  aristocracy.    In  the  select 


LUDWIG  VAN  BEETHOVEN. 


71 


society  to  which  he  had  the  e?ifree  he  met  many 
old  acquaintances  and  made  some  new  ones, 
—  among  them,  the  poet  Tiedge.  There  was 
one,  however,  who  made  a  deeper  impression 
than  all  the  rest.  It  was  Amelia  de  Sebald,  a 
young  and  beautiful  concert-singer,  who  cul- 
tivated music  as  an  amateur,  but  had,  it  is 
said,  a  very  sympathetic  voice  and  genuine 
talent.  When  the  fair  singer  left  Teplitz,  the 
master  first  became  aware  of  the  real  impres- 
sion she  had  made  upon  him,  and  in  a  letter 
to  Tiedge  he  thus  unbosoms  himself:  — 

'*  Two  affectionate  words  for  a  farewell  would 
have  sufficed  me  ;  alas  !  not  even  one  was  said 
to  me  !  The  Countess  von  der  Recke  sends 
me  a  pressure  of  the  hand  ;  it  is  something,  and 
I  kiss  her  hands  as  a  token  of  gratitude ;  but 
Amelia  has  not  even  saluted  me.  Every  day  I 
am  angry  at  myself  in  not  having  profited  by 
her  sojourn  at  Teplitz,  seeking  her  companion- 
ship sooner.  It  is  a  frightful  thing  to  make  the 
acquaintance  of  such  a  sweet  creature,  and  to  lose 
her  immediately  ;  and  nothing  is  more  insup- 
portable than  thus  to  have  to  confess  one's  own 
foolishness.  I  propose  to  remain  here  until  the 
end  of  the  month  of  September.  Write  me  as 
to  how  long  you  reckon  to  remain  in  Dresden  ; 
it  is  not  impossible  that  I  may  take  a  run  to  the 
Saxon  metropolis.  ...  Be  happy,  if  suffering 
humanity  can  be.    Give,  on  my  part,  to  the 


72 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


Countess  a  cordial  but  respectful  pressure  of 
the  hand,  and  to  Amelia  a  tender  kiss  —  if  no- 
body there  can  see." 

The  next  year  Beethoven  again  visited 
TepHtz,  with  the  hope  of  seeing  her  ;  but  the 
fair  vision  had  vanished.  His  only  consola- 
tion, if  consolation  it  can  be  called,  was  the 
opportunity  it  gave  him  of  making  the  ac- 
quaintance of  Goethe.  Except  in  so  far  as 
this  acquaintance  led  to  the  friendship  be- 
tween himself  and  the  wonderful  child  Bet- 
tina,  of  which  more  hereafter,  his  relations  to 
the  great  poet  were  of  no  special  value  to  him. 
Goethe  had  too  little  music  in  his  composition 
to  appreciate  him  at  his  true  value,  and  he 
was  too  much  of  a  king-worshipper  to  suit 
such  a  red  republican  as  Beethoven. 

The  Baroness  Dorothea  Van  Ertmann  was 
another  tided  pupil  whom  he  held  in  affec- 
tionate esteem,  who  inspired  his  wonderful 
sonata.  Op.  loi,  and  who  was  afterward  a 
warm  friend  of  Mendelssohn.  She  was  the 
wife  of  an  Austrian  captain  at  eighteen,  who 
died  subsequently  as  a  field-marshal  at  Milan. 
She  commenced  her  musical  studies  at  a  very 
early  age,  and  made  the  acquaintance  of  Bee- 
thoven by  chance,  while  playing  some  of  his 
sonatas  for  the  first  time.    He  accidentally 


LUDWIG  VAN  BEETHOVEN.  73 

overheard  her,  and  was  so  captivated  with 
her  style  that  he  offered  to  teach  her,  and 
soon  became  a  daily  visitor  at  her  house.  As 
a  teacher  he  was  severe  with  her  ;  as  a  friend, 
affectionate ;  and  when  she  had  lost  the  last 
of  her  children,  he  shared  her  grief  and  gave 
expression  to  it  by  extemporizing  upon  the 
piano  in  her  apartments  for  her.  It  is  said 
that  when  he  ended  his  fantasie,  her  eyes 
were  filled  with  tears  so  that  she  could  not 
speak  to  him.  Among  others  who  captivated 
him  during  his  orchestral  career  in  Bonn,  was 
a  fair  and  brilliant  singer,  Magdalena  Will- 
mann,  filling  at  that  time  an  engagement  in 
the  Court  Opera  at  Vienna,  to  whom,  it  is 
intimated,  he  offered  his  hand  in  marriage. 
It  would  appear  that  his  offer  was  a  serious 
one ;  but  the  repulse  was  prompt  and  mer- 
ciless, the  great  songstress,  afterward  Mrs. 
Galvani,  declaring  that  she  rejected  him  be- 
cause he  was  ''so  ugly  and  half  cracked." 

Mile.  Marie  Koschak,  who  subsequently 
married  Dr.  Pachler,  an  advocate  in  Gratz,  a 
very  beautiful  woman,  and  an  amateur  musi- 
cian of  extraordinary  merit,  inspired  in  Bee- 
thoven a  glow  warmer  than  that  of  friendship, 
or  even  affection.  In  one  of  his  letters  he 
writes :  — 


74 


IVOMA/V  IN  MUSIC. 


"Love  alone,  yes,  love  alone,  can  make  your 
life  happier.  O  God  !  grant  that  I  may  at  last 
find  her  who  can  strengthen  me  in  virtue,  whom 
I  can  legitimately  call  my  own.  On  July  27, 
1812,  when  she  drove  past  me  in  Baden,  she 
seemed  to  gaze  at  me." 

"  She  "  was  Marie  Koschak.  It  was  an  un- 
happy love.    In  18 16  he  writes  to  Ries  :  — 

"My  kind  regards  to  your  wife.  I,  alas! 
have  none.  One,  alone,  I  wished  to  possess 
but  never  shall  I  call  her  mine." 

In  this  ^connection  a  statement  made  in  the 
*'Grenzboten,"  by  Fraulein  del  Rio,  of  a  con- 
versation between  her  father  and  Beethoven, 
confirms  the  unhappiness  of  his  attachment 
for  the  beautiful  Marie.    She  writes  :  — 

"  My  father's  idea  was  that  marriage  alone 
could  remedy  the  sad  condition  of  Beethoven's 
household  matters  ;  so  he  asked  him  whether 
he  knew  any  one,  etc.  Our  long  existing  pre- 
sentiment was  then  realized.  His  love  was 
unfortunate.  Five  years  ago  he  had  become 
acquainted  with  a  person  with  whom  he  would 
have  esteemed  it  the  highest  felicity  of  his  life 
to  have  entered  into  closer  ties  ;  but  it  was  vain 
to  think  of  it,  being  almost  an  impossibility,  a 
chimera ;  and  yet  his  feelings  remained  the 
same  as  on  the  very  first  day  he  had  seen  her. 
He  added  that  never  before  had  he  found  such 


LUDWIG  VAN  BEETHOVEN.  75 


harmony;  but  no  declaration  had  ever  been 
made,  not  being  able  to  prevail  upon  himself 
to  do  so." 

Marie  Pachler  and  her  husband  were  also 
friends  of  Franz  Schubert,  and  to  her  he 
dedicated  a  number  of  his  songs  as  a  token 
of  his  esteem  and  friendship.  It  is  touching 
to  think  that  Beethoven,  who  had  never  made 
the  acquaintance  of  Schubert,  though  living 
near  him,  did  not  really  appreciate  or  recog- 
nize the  beauty  of  his  music  until  he  was  on 
his  death-bed,  when  the  songs  dedicated  to 
Marie  were  handed  to  him.  He  examined 
them,  and  exclaimed,  "Truly,  Schubert  is 
animated  by  a  spark  of  the  sacred  fire  ! " 
One  year  later  Schubert  passed  away,  almost 
his  last  words  being  the  expression  of  a  desire 
to  be  buried  by  the  side  of  Beethoven.  And 
now  the  world's  greatest  musician  and  Ger- 
many's greatest  song-writer,  strangers  in  life, 
sleep  side  by  side. 

There  were  two  other  attachm.ents  of  Bee- 
thoven's which  unquestionably  exercised  a 
strong  influence  upon  his  creative  power. 
The  first  of  these  was  for  Bettina  von  Arnim, 
nee  Brentano,  the  wonderful  child  whom 
Goethe  has  immortalized  no  less  than  Bee- 
thoven.   She  it  was  who  brought  these  two 


76 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


giants  together.  She  keenly  and  thoroughly 
appreciated  and  understood  the  great  mas- 
ter ;  and  to  her  he  explained,  not  only  his 
own  music,  but  all  music,  with  an  enthusiasm 
of  manner,  as  well  as  closeness  of  analysis, 
that  have  never  been  excelled.  One  cannot 
read  that  extraordinary  letter  written  by  Bet- 
tina  to  Goethe,  in  which  she  prepares  the 
way  for  a  meeting  between  them,  without 
feeling  how  closely  Beethoven  penetrated  to 
the  very  soul  of  music,  and  how  sacred  his 
art  was  to  him.  The  real  meaning  and  char- 
acter of  music  are  better  set  forth  in  the  few 
lines  of  this  letter  than  in  many  volumes  that 
have  been  written.  Bettina,  with  a  genius 
akin  to  that  of  Beethoven's,  clearly  compre- 
hended him,  and  laid  his  very  soul  before 
Goethe  with  her  glowing  and  enthusiastic 
eloquence,  so  that  he  was  ready  to  embrace 
it,  though  the  difference  between  the  spirit- 
ual nature  of  the  composer  and  the  sensual 
nature  of  the  poet  was  a  radical  one.  Bee- 
thoven's attachment  to  Bettina  was  purely 
Platonic,  and  yet  it  was  strong.  His  three 
celebrated  letters  to  her  furnish  proofs  of  its 
strength,  and  equal  proofs  of  the  great  in- 
fluence she  exerted  upon  him.  On  the  nth 
of  August,  1810,  he  writes  to  her:  — 


LUDWIG  VAN  BEETHOVEN.  'jj 


"  Art  I  Who  comprehends  it  ?  With  whom 
can  I  discuss  this  mighty  goddess  ?  How  pre- 
cious to  me  were  the  few  days  when  we  talked 
together,  or,  I  should  rather  say,  corresponded  ! 
I  have  carefully  preserved  the  little  notes  with 
your  clever,  charming,  most  charming  answers; 
so  I  have  to  thank  my  defective  hearing  for  the 
greater  part  of  our  fugitive  intercourse  being 
written  down.  Since  you  left  I  have  had  some 
unhappy  hours,  —  hours  of  the  deepest  gloom, 
when  I  could  do  nothing.  I  wandered  for  three 
hours  in  the  Schonbrunn  Allee  after  you  left  us  ; 
but  no  angel  met  me  there  to  take  possession  of 
me  as  you  did." 

In  1811,  about  the  time  she  was  married, 
he  wTites  :  — 

"  I  carried  your  letter  about  with  me  the  whole 
summer,  and  it  often  made  me  feel  very  happy. 
Though  I  do  not  frequently  write  to  you,  and 
you  never  see  me,  still  I  write  you  letters  by 
thousands  in  my  thoughts.  I  can  easily  im- 
agine what  you  feel  at  Berlin  in  witnessing  all 
the  noxious  frivolity  of  the  world's  rabble,  even 
had  you  not  written  it  to  me  yourself.  Such 
prating  about  art,  and  yet  no  results  !  " 

In  still  another  letter,  written  to  her  a  year 
later,  he  bears  direct  testimony  to  her  power 
over  his  musical  creative  ability  :  — 

"Heavens!  if  I  could  have  lived  with  you 
as       [Goethe]  did,  beheve  me,  I  should  have 


78 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


produced  far  greater  things.  A  musician  is  also 
a  poet ;  he,  too,  can  feel  himself  transported  into 
a  brighter  world  by  a  pair  of  fine  eyes,  where 
loftier  spirits  sport  with  him  and  impose  heavy 
tasks  upon  him.  What  thoughts  rushed  into 
my  mind  when  I  first  saw  you  in  the  observa- 
tory, during  a  refreshing  May  shower,  so  fertil- 
izing to  me  also  !  The  most  beautiful  themes 
stole  from  your  eyes  into  my  heart,  which  shall 
yet  enchant  the  world  when  Beethoven  no  longer 
directs." 

Elsewhere  in  the  same  letter  he  says  :  — 

"Spirits  may  love  one  another,  and  I  shall 
ever  woo  yours.  Your  approval  is  dearer  to  me 
than  all  else  in  the  world." 

The  second  attachment  was  for  the  beauti-  ' 
ful  Countess  Guiletta  Guiccardi,  —  one  of  his 
pupils,  around  whom  popular  fancies  of  all 
sorts  have  clustered,  and  several  writers  have 
woven  very  pretty  romances.  Mr.  Thayer,  in 
his  biography,  has  done  much  to  divest  this 
attachment  of  its  romance  with  his  merciless 
dates  and  hard  facts  ;  but  so  long  as  it  has 
probability  on  its  side,  and  it  has  been  be- 
lieved for  years  without  question,  even  as  it 
was  during  his  own  life,  let  us  still  believe  that 
she  was  the  "  Immortal  Beloved "  to  whom 
he  addressed  such  passionate  letters,  and  of 
whom  he  writes  to  Wegeler  :  — 


LUDWIG  VAN  BEETHOVEN. 


"  I  am  leading  a  more  agreeable  and  less  mis- 
anthropic life.  This  change  has  been  wrought 
by  a  lovely,  fascinating  girl  who  loves  me,  and 
whom  I  love.  It  is  the  first  time  I  ever  felt 
that  marriage  could  make  me  happy.  Unluckily, 
she  is  not  in  my  rank  in  life ;  and  indeed  at  this 
moment  I  can  marry  no  one." 

His  feelings  towards  her  admit  of  no  ques- 
tion, as  the  following  extract  from  one  of  the 
letters  will  show,  which,  Mr.  Thayer  to  the 
contrary  notwithstanding,  we  will  assume  was 
written  to  the  Countess  :  — 

"  My  angel,  my  all,  my  self,  —  A  few  words 
only  to-day  in  pencil  —  your  pencil  \init  Dei7te?n, 
the  D21  being  used  throughout  the  original] : 
only  till  to-morrow  is  my  lodging  fixed;  what 
miserable  waste  of  time  !  Why  this  deep  grief 
when  necessity  speaks  ?  Can  our  love  exist  ex- 
cept by  sacrifice,  by  not  demanding  all  ?  Can  you 
help  not  being  quite  mine,  I  not  quite  yours? 
Ah,  God  !  look  into  beautiful  Nature,  and  calm 
your  mind  over  what  must  be.  Love  demands 
all,  and  justly  ;  so  it  is  from  me  to  you,  from  you 
to  me;  only  you  forget  too  often  that  I  must  live 
for  myself  and  for  you.  If  we  were  quite  united, 
you  would  feel  this  grief  no  more  than  I.  .  .  . 
My  journey  was  terrible  ;  I  did  not  arrive  till 
four  in  the  morning  :  for  want  of  sufficient  horses 
the  mail-coach  chose  a  different  route  ;  and  what 
a  terrible  road  !  At  the  last  station  they  warned 
me  not  to  travel  at  night,  and  frightened  me  with 


8o 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


a  wood  ;  but  that  only  tempted  me,  and  I  was 
wrong.  The  carriage  could  not  but  collapse  in 
the  terrible  road,  bottomless,  a  mere  country 
road  ;  but  for  my  postilions  I  should  have  stuck 
there.  .  .  .  Now  quickly  from  the  external  to 
the  internal.  We  shall  probably  see  one  an- 
other soon  ;  and  to-day  I  cannot  tell  you  the 
thoughts  I  had  regarding  my  life  during  these 
few  days.  Were  our  hearts  but  always  close 
together,  I  should  have  none  such.  My  heart  is 
full :  I  have  much  to  say  to  you.  Oh  !  there 
are  moments  when  I  find  that  language  is 
nothing.  Be  cheerful ;  remain  my  faithful  sole 
treasure,  my  all,  as  I  am  yours  ;  the  rest  the 
gods  must  send,  what  shall  be  and  must  be. 
Your  faithful 

LUDWIG. 

Incoherent  eloquence  ;  but  could  there  be  a 
surer  proof  of  love  than  its  very  incoherence  ? 
When  Beethoven  first  knew  the  Countess,  she 
was  a  lovely  girl  of  seventeen,  his  pupil,  and  an 
excellent  musician  as  well  as  a  skilful  linguist. 
She  was  possessed  of  every  quality  to  attract 
him,  —  exquisite  personal  beauty,  rare  intel- 
lectual ability,  irreproachable  character,  and 
withal  was  proud  of  his  admiration,  or  rather 
adoration,  of  her.  Beethoven  then  was  twice 
her  age  ;  but  disparity  in  years  did  not  occur 
to  him  as  an  obstacle  to  their  union,  any  more 
than  disparity  in  rank,  though  he  after^vard 


LUDWIG  VAN  BEETHOVEN.  8 1 

discovered  the  effectual  bar  in  the  latter. 
There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  he 
offered  her  his  hand,  and  that  she  would 
have  accepted  it  had  it  not  been  for  her 
father's  opposition.  She  yielded  to  his  re- 
monstrances, and,  at  his  solicitation,  two  years 
later  married  Count  Gallenberg,  an  impresario 
and  very  prolific  writer  of  very  poor  dance- 
music.  The  affair,  therefore,  was  mortifying 
to  Beethoven  in  a  double  sense,  —  first,  that 
he  should  have  been  rejected  at  all ;  and,  sec- 
ond, that  he  should  have  been  rejected  in 
favor  of  such  an  insignificant  rival.  It  is  said 
that  upon  her  refusal  he  fled  to  the  villa  of 
her  friend,  the  Countess  Erdody,  then  disap- 
peared for  two  days,  and  was  eventually  found, 
exhausted  with  exposure  and  fasting,  in  a  dis- 
tant part  of  her  grounds.  Certain  it  is  that  he 
never  entirely  recovered  from  the  pain  and 
mortification  of  the  rejection.  He  always 
spoke  of  her  with  tenderness ;  and  nearly 
twenty  years  after,  in  a  conversation  with 
Schindler,  alluded  to  his  discomfiture  with  a 
sort  of  subdued  bitterness.  Of  her  influence 
upon  him  in  his  music  there  remains  no  ques- 
tion. If  no  other  proof  were  at  hand,  the 
exquisite  C  sharp  minor  sonata,  so  familiarly 
known  as  the  "  Moonlight,"  which  she  inspired, 
6 


82 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


and  which  he  dedicated  to  her,  would  be 
sufficient  testimony,  in  its  wealth  of  beauty, 
tenderness,  and  passion,  to  the  magic  power  of 
this  woman's  love  over  him.  It  is  not  unfair 
to  assume  that  all  he  wrote  during  this  period 
was  made  brighter,  purer,  and  more  majestic 
by  her  memory.  Lost  from  his  home  and  his 
heart,  she  shone  resplendent  in  his  music. 

The  instances  I  have  cited  —  and  to  these 
many  others  might  be  added — show  that  Dr. 
Wegeler  was  correct  when  he  said  that  Bee- 
thoven was  always  in  love.  Though  fixed  and 
grounded  in  every  other  habit  of  life,  in  love 
his  nature  was  contradictory.  In  this  long  list 
of  attachments  there  were  but  two  that  made 
a  deep  impression  upon  him.  In  the  other 
cases  he  flitted  from  flower  to  flower,  making 
butterfly  pauses  at  each.  His  world  was  al- 
ways an  ideal  one  :  ardent  he  may  have  been, 
but  his  passion  was  none  the  less  austere. 
Surrounded  with  corruption,  he  led  a  life  of 
absolute  purity.  Love  to  him  was  a  light 
which  illumines,  not  a  flame  that  burns.  He 
found  more  pleasure  in  the  society  of  women 
than  of  men ;  and  if  his  energetic,  impulsive 
nature  suggested  exaggerated  feelings,  it  is 
very  sure  that  they  soon  found  their  sentimen- 
tal level  in  his  cooler  moments.    His  letters. 


LUDWIG  VAN  BEETHOVEN.  83 

which  at  first  glance  seem  imbued  with  pas- 
sion, when  viewed  from  this  stand-point  are 
only  expressions  of  aspiration  rather  than  of 
desire.  If  there  were  no  other  proof  of  this, 
his  purity  and  nobility  of  character  forbid  any 
doubt.  If  one  wishes  to  know  how  these  at- 
tachments affected  him  in  his  music,  it  is  only 
necessary  to  look  at  the  long  list  of  his  dedi- 
cations, and  remember  that  almost  ever)^  one 
of  them  sprang  from  the  relations  of  friend- 
ship and  love.  The  very  soul  of  Beethoven's 
music  is  love  in  its  varying  forms.  His  love 
for  humanity  rings  out  in  the  vocal  finale  of 
the  Ninth  Symphony  :  — 

"  Seid  umschiungen  Millionen 
Diesen  Kuss  der  ganzen  Welt." 

His  love  of  freedom  bums  in  the  ^'  Eroica." 
His  love  of  God  shines  resplendent  and  ma- 
jestic in  the  immortal  measures  of  the  Second 
Mass.  His  love  of  art  is  shown  by  the  re- 
morseless manner  in  which  he  pressed  the 
thorns  of  life  into  his  own  heart,  —  this  Titan 
doing  batde  with  Fate,  and  winning  immor- 
tality ;  and  all  along  the  fields  of  this  struggle 
are  scattered  the  roses  of  woman's  love. 


FRANCIS  JOSEPH  HAYDN. 


Sir,  if  you  and  I  were  both  melted  down  together, 
we  should  not  furnish  materials  for  one  Haydn. — 
Mozart. 

APA"  HAYDN— not  only  the  fa- 
ther of  the  symphony  and  quartet, 
but  father  to  the  musical  world  by 
the  grace  of  his  unaffected,  naive,  fresh,  and 
smoothly  flowing  numbers,  so  full  of  cheerful- 
ness and  good-nature  —  has  been  endeared 
to  all  musicians  since  his  time  by  this  familiar 
and  affectionate  prefix ;  but  the  homely  family 
word  is  a  strange  misnomer  when  one  consid- 
ers his  domestic  relations  and  their  influence 
upon  his  music. 

Haydn  commenced  his  musical  career  as  a 
chorister  in  Vienna,  having  a  voice  of  great 
power  and  beauty.  In  the  midst  of  his  suc- 
cess, however,  as  a  vocalist,  one  disappoint- 


FRANCIS  JOSEPH  HAYDN.  85 

ment  after  another  overtook  him ;  and,  to 
crown  all,  he  finally  lost  his  voice,  and  was 
discharged  from  his  position  besides,  upon 
some  trivial  pretence,  to  make  room  for  an- 
other with  greater  vocal  ability,  and  that  other 
his  own  brother  Michael.  In  his  twentieth 
year  he  was  thrown  out  upon  the  world  with- 
out friends  and  without  money,  but,  fortu- 
nately for  him,  with  a  very  happy  and  hopeful 
temperament.  He  soon  procured  a  few  pu- 
pils, borrowed  some  money,  rented  a  garret 
of  an  old  stocking-weaver,  —  attracted  by  his 
sign,  "  A  poor  person  can  find  a  sleeping-room 
in  the  attic  very  cheap,"  —  devoted  himself 
to  composition,  made  the  acquaintance  of 
musicians,  and  at  last  had  the  good  luck  to 
be  selected  as  musical  director  and  chamber 
composer  to  a  Bohemian  count.  This  yielded 
him  a  good  salary  for  those  days,  and  he  there- 
upon began  to  think  of  marriage.  He  was 
of  an  excitable,  impulsive  temperament,  and 
withal  susceptible  to  female  blandishments, 
and  consequently  was  in  a  condition  to  accept 
whatever  chance  might  throw  in  his  way.  The 
stocking-weaver  had  an  only  daughter,  Mary, 
a  young  girl  of  lovely  character  and  pious  dis- 
position, whose  admiration  of  Haydn's  musi- 
cal talent  soon  developed  into  love  for  him. 


86 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


There  is  little  doubt  but  that  the  affection  was 
reciprocated.  Haydn  was  struggling  at  this 
time,  however,  between  two  strong  passions,  — 
love,  on  the  one  hand,  and  his  mother's  ardent 
desire  that  he  should  become  a  monk,  on  the 
other.  The  latter  was  the  stronger ;  and  he 
soon  entered  the  Servite  monastery  as  a  novice, 
where  he  devoted  himself  to  the  pursuit  of  his 
art  with  the  greatest  industry.  The  stocking- 
weaver's  daughter  made  no  complaint  when 
she  found  herself  forgotten  and  saw  that 
her  love  was  hopeless.  She  died  not  long 
afterward ;  and  among  her  last  words  to  her 
parents  were  these :  "  Father  and  mother, 
you  must  pray  for  Joseph  as  long  as  you  live  ; 
for  he  is  a  rare  gift  of  God  to  men,  and  he 
will  one  day  be  a  great  man,  but  he  will  al- 
ways remain  humble.  The  world  will  applaud 
him,  but  he  will  not  become  unfaithful  to  his 
God  on  that  account.  He  should  not  weep 
for  me,  but  sing  a  hymn  at  night  when  he  sits 
all  alone  at  his  instrument."  Upon  learning  of 
her  death,  Haydn  visited  the  parents,  sym- 
pathized with  them,  and  provided  them  with 
the  money  to  procure  her  a  befitting  grave. 

Haydn  did  not  remain  long  in  the  monastery. 
He  had  not  the  monastic  disposition,  though 
he  was  a  man  of  very  simple  and  childlike 


FRANCIS  JOSEPH  HAYDN.  87 

piety.  He  could  not  seclude  himself  from  a 
world  in  •which  he  felt  that  he  was  destined 
to  achieve  a  great  name,  nor  abandon  the 
profession  of  music,  whose  claims  upon  him 
were  growing  stronger  and  stronger.  He 
was  hardly  out  in  the  world  again  before 
another  opportunity  for  marriage  presented 
itself.  Without  any  unnecessary  delay  he  ac- 
cepted it,  and  regretted  it  all  the  rest  of  his 
life.  He  was  introduced  into  the  family  of 
a  hair-dresser  and  wig-maker,  named  Keller, 
who  was  of  a  sufficiently  musical  turn  to  ap- 
preciate his  talent.  He  had  two  daughters 
whose  education  was  giving  him  much  trouble, 
and  was  delighted  when  Haydn  consented 
to  give  them  musical  instruction.  The  old 
wig-maker,  having  gained  this  point,  took  an- 
other step  ahead,  made  the  most  desperate 
arguments  to  convince  him  he  ought  to  love 
some  one,  and  finally  offered  him  the  youngest 
daughter  in  marriage,  who  would  have  made 
him  an  excellent  wife.  Haydn,  however,  with 
the  usual  perversity  of  lovers,  wanted  the 
other,  whereupon  the  disappointed  younger 
sister  retired  to  a  convent.  Not  a  whit  dis- 
couraged, the  wig-maker  baited  his  hook  with 
the  other  daughter,  and  easily  caught  the  sus- 
ceptible Haydn.    Never  was  there  a  more  ill- 


88 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


assorted  match.  The  bride  soon  displayed 
herself  as  a  scold  and  shrew  of  most  ungov- 
ernable temper.  She  had  no  sympathy  with 
his  musical  ambition,  and  no  pride  in  his 
compositions.  He  himself  said  of  her  that 
she  did  not  care  whether  he  were  an  artist  or 
a  shoemaker.  Long  before  the  honeymoon 
was  over,  poor  Haydn  found  himself  tied  to 
a  Xanthippe,  who  when  she  was  not  utterly 
unsociable,  which  probably  were  his  happiest 
moments,  amused  herself  with  curtain  lec- 
tures of  the  most  vigorous  description.  And 
yet,  oddly  enough,  the  termagant  influenced 
his  music  in  a  very  curious  manner,  and  one 
not  peculiarly  agreeable  to  him.  Added  to 
all  her  other  disagreeable  qualities,  she  was 
a  religious  bigot  and  prude,  with  a  decided 
penchant  for  entertaining  priests  and  monks. 
She  kept  the  house  full  of  them ;  and  they, 
reahzing  his  genius,  induced  her  to  make 
him  write  sacred  music.  To  the  religious 
admonition  and  argument  which  she  brought 
to  bear  upon  him,  she  also  added  her  own 
personal  commands  and  objurgations ;  and 
Haydn,  being  already  under  good  family  dis- 
cipline, could  not  do  otherwise  than  submit ; 
so,  while  the  fat  fathers  were  revelling  below 
stairs  in  carnal  enjoyments,  "Papa"  Haydn 


FRANCIS  JOSEPH  HAYDN.  89 

above  stairs  was  \\Titing  anthems,  motets,  and 
masses  for  their  convents  and  churches,  for 
which  he  received  no  remuneration.  One 
can  easily  imagine  the  wTath  and  impreca- 
tions he  must  have  hurled  at  the  prude  and 
her  roystering  companions,  as  the  sounds  of 
their  revelry  smote  upon  his  ears,  and  how 
little  of  the  ''Laus  Deo"  there  was  in  his  heart 
as  his  fingers  penned  the  scores  that  were  to 
be  sung  upon  the  following  Sabbath.  Gradu- 
ally this  kind  of  life  became  unendurable, 
and  he  sought  elsewhere  the  happiness  which 
he  could  not  find  at  home.  Fate,  however, 
was  kind  to  him,  and  brought  him  speedy 
release.  The  Capellmeister  of  the  reigning 
prince,  Paul  Esterhazy,  as  devoted  to  music, 
even,  as  the  present  King  of  Bavaria,  was 
growing  old ;  and  the  Prince  applied  to 
Haydn  to  fill  the  position  of  second  Capell- 
meister. Haydn  joyfully  accepted  it,  all  the 
more  so  as  it  was  an  unwritten  law  of  the 
musical  Count  that  musicians'  wives  could 
not  accompany  them.  It  was  a  happy  day 
for  "  Papa  "  Haydn.  He  not  only  secured  a 
lucrative  and  important  position,  but,  what 
was  still  better,  a  permanent  release  from 
domestic  torture.  It  was  a  lasting  separation 
firom  his  wife  ;  but  he  always  acted  honorably 


90  WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 

by  granting  her  an  annual  stipend  for  her 
support.  Whenever  they  met  the  meeting 
was  sure  to  be  a  stormy  one,  and  ahvays  on 
the  subject  of  money.  She  was  a  spendthrift, 
and  not  only  wasted  half  his  earnings,  which 
he  always  sent  her,  but  contracted  debts  in 
his  name,  knowing  he  would  pay  them  rather 
than  have  trouble.  Year  by  year  she  grew 
more  extravagant;  but  at  last  death  put  an 
end  to  her  demands  upon  him.  When  the 
old  Capellmeister  died,  he  was  appointed  to 
his  place,  and  had  full  control  of  the  Prince's 
musical  household,  which  consisted  not  only 
of  an  excellent  orchestra,  but  also  of  a  large 
chorus  and  corps  of  solo  singers ;  so  that  he 
was  enabled  to  bring  out  large  works,  and 
the  symphonies  and  operas  of  his  own  com- 
position. Besides  these  forces,  he  had  trav- 
elling companies  and  virtuosi^  and  an  elegant 
theatre,  at  his  disposal.  Musically  he  had 
everything  that  heart  could  wish ;  and  in 
this  musical  atmosphere  he  composed  nearly 
all  his  operas  and  most  of  his  songs,  be- 
sides some  of  his  most  important  instrumen- 
tal works.  The  place  of  his  wife  was  very 
happily,  but  not  very  honorably,  filled  by 
Luigia  Polzelli,  a  vocalist  in  the  chapel,  and 
wife  of  Anton  Polzelli,  a  violinist  in  his  or- 


FRANCIS  JOSEPH  HAYDN.  91 

chestra.  The  lady  was  an  Italian  by  birth, 
and  an  ordinary  singer,  but  possessed  of  per- 
sonal charms  that  commended  her  to  him, 
and  resulted  in  a  liaison,  at  first  very  agree- 
able, but  ultimately  subjecting  him  to  almost 
as  much  trouble  as  he  had  had  with  his  wife, 
since  the  Roman  woman  made  constant  use 
of  his  violent  passion  for  her  to  extort  money 
from  him.  She  had  two  children,  one  of 
whom  was  popularly  supposed  to  be  his  son. 
There  is  no  record  that  the  Polzelli  was  of 
any  benefit  to  him  musically ;  certainly  she 
was  not  morally. 

There  were  those,  however,  who  exercised  a 
great  and  lasting  influence  upon  his  musical 
production ;  and  among  them  was  Madame 
Genzinger,  the  wife  of  a  prominent  physician  in 
Vienna,  at  whose  house  he  spent  much  of  his 
time,  and  for  whom  he  wrote  several  sympho- 
nies and  a  large  number  of  sonatas.  His  cor- 
respondence with  her  was  very  voluminous ; 
and  it  bears  almost  constant  testimony  to  the 
powerful  influence  she  exerted  upon  him, 
both  during  his  service  under  Prince  Esterhazy 
and  after  he  had  quit  that  sendee.  Her  hus- 
band was  the  physician  in  ordinary  to  that 
Prince,  and  it  was  thus  he  became  acquainted 
with  the  family.    He  visited  the  house  every 


92 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


Sunday ;  and  as  the  lady  was  a  fine  singer 
and  an  admirable  musician,  whose  home  was 
the  centre  of  attraction  for  all  the  musicians 
in  Vienna,  he  soon  became  an  honored  guest ; 
and  the  acquaintance  which  was  based  upon 
music  soon  ripened  into  a  lasting  and  hon- 
orable friendship,  though  the  lady  was  by 
many  years  his  senior.  It  is  a  bright  spot  to 
contemplate  in  the  unhappy  and  not  alto- 
gether blameless  life  of  Haydn.  Turn  to  al- 
most any  letter  in  their  long  correspondence, 
and  it  will  be  found  to  testify  to  her  influence 
over  him.    At  one  time  he  writes  :  — 

"  I  cannot  but  admire  the  trouble  and  patience 
you  lavish  on  my  poor  talents ;  and  allow  me  to 
assure  you  in  return,  that  in  my  frequent  evil 
moods  nothing  cheers  me  so  much  as  the  flat- 
tering conviction  that  I  am  kindly  remembered 
by  you." 

At  another  time  he  writes  :  — 

"  Well,  here  I  sit  in  my  wilderness  ;  forsaken 
like  some  poor  orphan,  almost  without  human 
society ;  melancholy,  dwelling  on  the  memory 
of  past  glorious  days.  Yes,  past,  alas  !  And 
who  can  tell  when  those  happy  hours  may  re- 
turn,—  those  charming  meetings  where  the  whole 
circle  have  but  one  heart  and  one  soul,  —  all 
those  delightful  musical  evenings  which  can  only 


FRANCIS  JOSEPH  HAYDN.  93 


be  remembered  and  not  described  ?  Where  are 
all  those  inspired  moments?" 

In  the  same  letter  he  playfully  laments  the 
loss  of  the  good  things  at  Madame  Genzinger's 
home,  in  the  following  humorously  lugubrious 
strain  :  — 

*'  I  found  everything  at  home  in  confusion. 
For  three  days  I  did  not  know  whether  I  was 
capell  master  or  cafiell  servant ;  nothing  could 
console  me.  My  apartments  were  all  in  con- 
fusion ;  my  pianoforte,  that  I  formerly  loved  so 
dearly,  was  perverse  and  disobedient,  and  rather 
irritated  than  soothed  me.  I  slept  very  little, 
and  even  my  dreams  persecuted  me ;  for  while 
asleep,  I  was  under  the  pleasant  delusion  that  I 
was  listening  to  the  opera  of  '  Le  Nozze  di  Figaro,' 
when  the  blustering  north-wind  woke  me,  and 
almost  blew  my  nightcap  off  my  head.  I  lost 
twenty  pounds  in  weight  in  three  days;  for  the 
effects  of  my  good  fare  in  Vienna  disappeared 
on  the  journey.  'Alas!  alas!'  thought  I  to  my- 
self, when  forced  to  eat,  at  the  restaurateur's,  in- 
stead of  capital  beef  a  slice  of  a  cow  fifty  years 
old;  instead  of  a  ragout  with  little  balls  of  forced 
meat,  an  old  sheep  with  yellow  carrots;  instead 
of  a  Bohemian  pheasant,  a  tough  grill  ;  and 
instead  of  good  and  juicy  oranges,  Hungarian 
salad  ;  instead  of  pastry,  dry  apple-fritters,  and 
hazel-nuts,  etc.  'Alas  !  alas!'  thought  I  again  to 
myself,  '  would  that  I  now  had  many  a  morsel 
that  I  despised  in  Vienna  ! '    Here  in  Estoras, 


94 


womjin  in  music. 


no  one  asks  me, '  Would  you  like  some  chocolate, 
with  milk  or  without?  Will  you  take  some  cof- 
fee, with  or  without  cream?  What  can  I  offer 
you,  my  good  Haydn  ?  Will  you  have  vanilla 
ice  or  pineapple  ? '  If  I  had  only  a  piece  of  good 
Parmesan  cheese,  particularly  in  Lent,  to  enable 
me  to  swallow  more  easily  the  black  dumpjings 
and  puffs  !  I  gave  our  porter  this  very  day  a 
commission  to  send  me  a  couple  of  pounds." 

After  Haydn  had  left  Vienna  and  gone  to 
London^  under  the  management  of  Salomon, 
to  give  concerts,  he  continued  his  correspond- 
ence, and  constantly  expresses  his  obligations 
to  her,  besides  sending  her  many  of  his  com- 
positions written  expressly  for  her.  During  his 
London  visit,  where  his  concerts  were  all  the 
rage,  he  made  many  female  friends,  —  among 
them,  Madame  Bartolozzi,  the  wife  of  the  cel- 
ebrated engraver,  for  whom  he  wrote  three 
piano  trios  and  a  sonata;  the  wife  of  John 
Hunter,  a  celebrated  surgeon  of  that  time, 
who  wrote  the  words  for  many  of  his  canzo- 
nets; Mrs.  Hodges,  whom  he  describes  as 
"  the  loveliest  woman  I  ever  saw,  and  a  fine 
piano-player,"  for  whom  he  wrote  many  pieces ; 
and,  lastly,  a  lady  named  Schrolter,  widow  of 
the  Queen's  music-master,  who  conceived  a 
violent  passion  for  him,  which  was  reciprocated, 
though  he  was  then  sixty  years  of  age  and  she 


FRANCIS  JOSEPH  HAYDN. 


95 


Still  older.  Referring  to  her  afterward,  in 
connection  with  some  of  her  letters  to  him, 
he  said  :  "  These  are  from  an  English  widow 
who  fell  in  love  with  me.  She  was  a  very 
attractive  woman,  and  still  handsome  though 
over  sixty;  and  had  I  been  free,  I  should 
certainly  have  married  her."  For  her  he 
wrote  three  of  his  best  trios.  Of  all  his  nu- 
merous female  acquaintances,  however,  not 
one  exercised  such  an  influence  upon  him 
musically  as  Madame  Genzinger,  for  whom 
his  friendship  was  honorable.  We  owe  much 
of  his  music  to  his  wife ;  but  the  savage  and 
truculent  manner  in  which  she  inspired  him 
was  not  conducive  to  the  best  work  of  his  gen- 
ius. To  Madame  Genzinger's  exalted  friend- 
ship and  noble  influence  we  must  assign  his 
best  instrumental  pieces ;  and  who  shall  say 
that  his  two  greatest  works,  the  "  Creation  " 
and  the  "Seasons,"  written  in  his  old  age, 
when  the  passions  had  cooled  and  the  dross 
of  life  had  been  swept  away,  when,  as  he 
himself  says,  "  I  knelt  down  every  day,  and 
prayed  God  to  strengthen  me  for  my  work," 
may  not  also  be  attributable  to  the  same 
inspiring  influence? 


WOLFGANG  AMADEUS  MOZART. 


He  was  a  man  whose  mission  in  the  world  seems 
to  have  been  entirely  fulfilled;  to  whom  it  was  given 
to  link  together  the  godlike  with  humanity,  the 
mortal  with  the  immortal,  —  a  man  whose  footprints 
not  all  the  storms  of  time  can  ever  efface,  —  a  man 
who,  amid  all  his  lofty  aims,  esteemed  the  loftiest  of 
all  to  be  the  elevation  of  humanity.  —  Nohl. 

HERE  were  but  two  women  who 
strongly  influenced  Mozart  in  his 
music,  —  his  wife  Constance  and 
her  sister  Aloysia.  When  in  Munich  seeking 
the  patronage  of  the  Elector,  and  while  yet  a 
lad,  he  attended  the  German  opera,  and  was 
much  smitten  with  the  voice  and  personal 
charms  of  Mile.  Keiserin,  the  prima  donna,  a 
debutante,  who  was  singing  in  a  work  called 
"  Das  Fischer  Madchen,"  adapted  from  Pic- 
cini.  It  was  only  a  boyish  fancy,  however, 
and  resulted  in  nothing  more  serious  than 


WOLFGANG  AMADEUS  MOZART.  97 

some  gushing  letters  to  his  father  about  her ; 
referring  to  which,  several  months  later,  he 
says,  I  must  confess  that  I  was  an  ass  to 
wTite  such  a  complete  falsehood."  His  heart 
was  at  one  time  lightly  touched  by  his  cousin 
Marianne,  whom  he  visited  at  Augsburg ;  but 
it  ended  in  a  sportive  mood  between  them, 
and,  long  after  his  departure,  in  many  of  his 
most  rollicking,  frolicsome  letters,  full  of  jest 
and  banter,  he  alludes  to  it. 

On  the  30th  of  October,  1777,  young 
Mozart  arrived  at  Mannheim.  The  day  after 
his  arrival  he  visited  at  the  house  of  M.  Can- 
nabich,  the  director  of  the  Elector's  orchestra. 
He  went  there  many  times  afterward,  for  the 
director's  daughter  Rose  became  his  pupil. 
She  was  a  sprightly,  beautiful,  amiable  girl ;  and 
a  strong  attachment  sprang  up  between  them, 
with  music,  however,  rather  than  love,  for  its 
basis.  Painters  and  poets  afterward  raved  over 
her ;  but  Mozart  never  was  seriously  touched 
except  in  admiration  of  her  beauty,  and  by 
the  strong  musical  sympathy  between  them, 
which  led  to  his  writing  the  B  flat  sonata  for 
her,  the  andafite  movement  of  which  he  marked 
amoroso.  It  was  a  favorite  movement  with 
both.  What  story  of  passion  it  may  have 
told  her  can  be  imagined.    He  at  least  never 


98 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


cared  much  for  the  response.  His  fate  was 
yet  to  come,  but  it  came  very  speedily. 

About  this  time  he  made  the  acquaintance 
of  M.  Weber,  an  uncle  of  the  composer 
of  "  Der  Freischiitz,"  who  was  a  prompter 
and  music-copyist.  He  was  an  honorable 
and  open-hearted  but  poor  man,  with  a  wife 
and  six  children  depending  upon  him  for  sup- 
port. The  second  daughter,  Aloysia,  a  girl  of 
fifteen,  had  a  remarkably  beautiful  voice,  and 
Mozart  offered  to  instruct  her.  The  offer  was 
accepted,  and  master  and  pupil  soon  became 
lover  and  mistress.  His  own  letters  tell  the 
story  of  this  ill-fated  love  so  completely  that 
we  do  not  need  to  look  elsewhere  for  it.  On 
the  17th  of  January,  1778,  he  first  speaks  of 
her  in  a  letter  to  his  father,  and  says  :  — 

"  She  sings  admirably,  and  has  a  lovely,  pure 
voice.  She  is  only  fifteen.  She  fails  in  nothing 
but  in  stage  action  ;  were  it  not  for  that,  she 
might  be  \k\t  prima  donna  of  any  theatre.  .  .  . 
My  aria  for  '  De  Amicis '  she  sings  to  perfec- 
tion, with  all  its  tremendous  passages." 

Two  weeks  later  he  writes  again,  but  only 
to  inform  his  father  that  she  had  been  singing 
with  hhn  at  Kirchheim-Boland,  the  residence 
of  the  Princess  of  Orange.  Meanwhile  the  two 
lovers  are  forming  all  kinds  of  impracticable 


WOLFGANG  AM  AD  BUS  MOZART.  99 

plans,  —  among  them,  one  to  travel  together. 
With  that  strong  sense  of  filial  duty  which 
always  characterized  Mozart,  he  laid  the  plan 
before  his  father.  He  had  never  expressed 
even  a  suggestion  of  his  love  for  Aloysia  to 
him  ;  but  the  father  surmised  it,  and  disap- 
proved of  the  plan  to  travel.  He  now  grows 
bolder  in  his  letters,  and  makes  no  secret  of  his 
warm  admiration  of  her,  and  strives  also  to  in- 
duce his  father  to  take  an  interest  in  her  musical 
abihties.  He  wrote  arias  for  her  full  of  passion 
and  feeling ;  and  as  she  sang  them  to  him 
with  all  the  beauty  and  richness  of  her  voice, 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  songs  went 
to  their  hearts,  and  that  they  fully  believed  in 
the  reality  of  their  love  for  each  other,  never 
dreaming  how  soon  the  illusion  would  vanish. 
About  the  middle  of  March  (1778)  he  went 
with  his  mother  to  Paris.  The  parting  with 
Aloysia  was  a  sad  one  :  Weber  wept,  Aloysia 
wept ;  and  Mozart  writes  his  father :  "  Pray, 
forgive  me,  but  really  tears  come  to  my  eyes 
when  I  think  of  it ;  "  from  which  we  may  in- 
fer that  he  himself  also  did  a  generous  share  of 
the  weeping  as  he  bade  adieu  to  the  Webers. 
In  Paris,  music  occupied  his  attention ;  and 
concerts  which  he  attended,  and  at  which  he 
played,  tempered  the  sorrows  of  separation, 


100 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


and,  we  may  well  believe,  allayed  the  rankling 
of  the  stings  which  his  father's  satirical  allu- 
sions to  his  love-affair  had  left.  Work  is  the 
universal  panacea,  but  he  by  no  means  forgot 
Aloysia.  He  had  in  his  mind  the  idea  of  a 
speedy  marriage  with  her;  and  he  writes  to 
his  father,  July  31,  intimating  that  he  would 
like  to  leave  Paris  and  return  to  Mannheim, 
where  Aloysia  was  struggling  against  the  cabals 
of  jealous  singers  who  were  striving  to  prevent 
her  from  getting  an  engagement  in  the  Court 
concerts  at  Munich.  Little  he  dreamed  of 
the  fate  that  was  to  await  him  when  he  should 
see  her  again.  Three  months  later  Aloysia 
secured  the  coveted  situation  in  that  city ; 
and  Mozart  immediately  decided  to  seek  an 
appointment  there,  that  he  might  be  near  her. 
In  December  we  find  him  in  Munich,  where 
he  experienced  the  second  painful  shock  of 
his  Hfe,  the  first  being  the  death  of  his  mother 
during  their  Paris  visit.  Aloysia  was  faithless 
to  him.  The  blow  came  upon  him  like  a 
thunder-stroke.  She  hardly  recognized  him 
when  he  met  her ;  whereupon  he  went  to  the 
piano  and  sang  a  song  of  unconcern,  with  his 
heart  full  of  tears.  She  had  met  an  actor 
named  Lange  at  the  house  of  the  Princess  of 
Orange,  was  captivated  with  his  appearance. 


WOLFGANG  AMADEUS  MOZART.  lOI 


and  subsequently  married  him.  Time  was 
kind  to  the  one,  and  cruel  to  the  other.  It 
healed  Mozart's  wounds,  and  brought  him 
one  who  was  the  soul  of  honor  and  constancy. 
After  Aloysia's  marriage  he  could  calmly  write 
to  his  father  :  "  I  was  a  great  fool  about  Madame 
Lange.  I  own  it ;  but  what  is  a  man  not  when 
he  is  in  love?"  The  handsome  actor  whom 
Aloysia  had  married  was  a  drunken,  dissipated 
wretch,  who  went  from  bad  to  worse,  until  at 
last  she  had  to  separate  from  him.  She  con- 
tinued her  profession  in  Vienna,  and  in  1 782 
appeared  in  Mozart's  "  Die  Entfiihrung." 
Nohl  says  :  — 

"  Neither  happiness  nor  riches  brightened 
Aloysia's  path  in  life,  nor  the  peace  of  mind 
arising  from  the  consciousness  of  purity  of  heart. 
Not  till  she  was  an  aged  woman,  and  Mozart 
long  dead,  did  she  recognize  what  he  really  had 
been.  She  liked  to  talk  about  him  and  his 
friendship ;  and  in  thus  recalling  the  brightest 
memories  of  her  youth  some  of  that  lovable 
charm  seemed  to  revive  that  Mozart  had  im- 
parted to  her  and  to  all  with  whom  he  had  any 
intercourse." 

There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  on  the 
day  Mozart  lost  Aloysia  he  gained  her  sister 
Constance  ;  Because  there  is  no  question  that 
the  calm,  quiet,  domestic  sister  not  only  more 


I02 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


thoroughly  appreciated  and  understood  him, 
but  had  long  nourished  a  strong  though  un- 
uttered  love  for  him.  She  was  the  one  whom 
he  needed,  the  one  whom  fate  had  marked 
out  for  him.  She  was  quiet  and  restful  in 
temperament,  domestic  in  nature,  and  patient, 
docile,  and  sweet  in  disposition.  She  was 
very  fond  of  music ;  and  though  not  pos- 
sessed of  the  brilliant  powers  of  her  sister,  she 
was  still  a  singer  of  good  taste  and  excellent 
voice,  and  had  a  deeper  insight  into  music 
than  Aloysia.  Joined  to  a  rare  tact  in  man- 
aging household  affairs,  she  had  the  influence 
necessary  to  assist  and  inspire  him  in  compo- 
sition. She  first  appears  in  his  letters  May  25, 
1 781,  only  a  few  months  after  the  separation 
from  Aloysia,  who  was  now  Madame  Lange. 
She  finishes  a  letter  to  his  father,  which  business 
engagements  had  prevented  him  from  closing, 
and  only  writes  a  few  formal  words  regarding 
Mozart's  concerts.  On  the  25th  of  July  of 
the  same  year  we  find  his  first  serious  allu- 
sions to  Constance,  and  these  are  not  very 
encouraging.  He  \vrites  to  his  father  that  he 
is  going  to  leave  the  Webers  because  people 
are  beginning  to  gossip.    He  says  :  — 

"We  went  together  twice  to  tfie  Prater  ;  but 
her  mother  was  with  us,  and  as  I  chanced  to  be 


WOLFGANG  AMADEUS  MOZART.  103 

in  the  house  I  could  not  well  refuse  to  accom- 
pany them  ;  besides,  at  that  time  I  had  heard 
none  of  these  foolish  rumors.  I  must  also  tell 
you  that  I  was  only  allowed  to  pay  my  own 
share  ;  and  the  mother,  having  since  then  heard 
these  reports  from  others  as  well  as  from  myself, 
does  not  wish  us  to  go  anywhere  together,  and 
herself  advised  me  to  remove  to  another  house  in 
order  to  avoid  any  further  unpleasantness.  .  .  . 
I  will  not  say  that,  living  in  the  same  house  with 
the  young  lady  to  whom  people  have  married 
me,  I  am  ill-bred,  and  do  not  speak  to  her  ;  but 
I  am  not  in  love  with  her.  I  banter  and  jest 
with  her  when  time  permits,  but  nothing  more. 
If  I  were  obliged  to  marry  all  those  with  whom 
I  have  jested,  I  should  have  at  least  two  hundred 
wives." 

Jesting  saved  him  from  one  hundred  and 
ninety-nine  misfortunes,  perhaps;  but  there 
was  one  whose  strong,  steady,  deep  love 
turned  the  edge  of  all  his  sportive  jests, 
changed  his  frolicsome  humor  into  serious 
feeling,  and  at  last  gave  him  home  and  hap- 
piness. How  soon  jest  was  turned  into 
reahty  Mozart  himself  tells  us ;  for  in  less 
than  six  months  he  writes  to  his  father,  an- 
nouncing his  love  for  her,  and  asking  his 
consent  to  his  marriage.  The  letter  is  an 
interesting  one,  as  he  draws  a  picture  of  his 
affianced :  — 


104 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


"  But  now  who  is  the  object  of  my  love  ? 
Do  not  be  startled,  I  entreat.  Not  one  of  the 
Webers,  surely  ?  Yes,  one  of  the  Webers,  — 
not  Josepha,  not  Sophie,  but  the  third  daughter, 
Constance.  I  never  met  with  such  diversity  of 
disposition  in  any  family.  The  eldest  is  idle, 
coarse,  and  deceitful,  —  crafty  and  cunning  as  a 
fox.  Madame  Lange  (Aloysia)  is  false  and  un- 
principled, and  a  coquette.  The  youngest  is  still 
too  childish  to  have  her  character  defined  ;  she  is 
merely  a  good-humored,  frivolous  girl,  —  may 
God  guard  her  from  temptation !  The  third,  how- 
ever, namely,  my  good  and  beloved  Constance, 
is  the  martyr  of  the  family,  and  probably  on  this 
very  account  the  kindest-hearted,  the  cleverest, 
and,  in  short,  the  best  of  them  all.  She  takes 
charge  of  the  whole  house,  and  yet  does  nothing 
right  in  their  eyes,  .  .  .  Before  releasing  you 
from  this  subject  I  must  make  you  better  ac- 
quainted with  the  character  of  my  Constance. 
She  is  not  plain,  but  at  the  same  time  far  from 
handsome.  Her  whole  beauty  consists  in  a  pair 
of  bright  black  eyes  and  a  pretty  figure.  She  is 
not  witty,  but  has  enough  sound  good  sense  to 
enable  her  to  fulfil  her  duties  as  a  wife  and 
mother.  It  is  utterly  false  that  she  is  inclined 
to  be  extravagant ;  on  the  contrary,  she  is  in- 
variably very  plainly  dressed,  —  for  the  little  her 
mother  can  spend  on  her  children  she  gives  to 
the  two  others,  but  to  Constance  nothing.  It  is 
true  that  her  dress  is  always  neat  and  nice, 
however  simple  ;  and  she  can  herself  make  most 
of  the  things  requisite  for  a  young  lady.  She 


WOLFGANG  AM  AD  BUS  MOZART.  105 

dresses  her  own  hair,  understands  housekeeping, 
and  has  the  best  heart  in  the  world.  I  love  her 
with  my  whole  soul,  as  she  does  me.  Tell  me  if 
I  could  wish  a  better  wife." 

Surely  here  was  a  Cinderella  in  real  life ; 
but  Cinderella  and  the  Prince  were  to  fight  a 
hard  battle  yet,  before  they  came  to  their 
own.  The  composer  Peter  Winter,  while  in 
Salzburg,  filled  the  ears  of  Mozart's  father 
with  bad  reports  about  his  son  and  scanda- 
lous stories  about  Constance,  and  thus  satis- 
fied a  grudge  which  he  and  his  teacher,  the 
Abb^  Vogler,  had  against  Mozart.  The  father 
replied  to  his  son's  letter  in  a  furious  manner ; 
and  the  son  w-as  for  a  time  hardly  less  indig- 
nant at  the  father  for  listening  to  such  baseless 
accusations  against  him  and  his  affianced, 
than  he  w^as  at  the  slanderers.  Constance's 
guardian  (the  father  being  dead)  was  also 
very  uneasy  at  the  insinuations  against  the 
young  composer,  and  at  last  prevailed  upon 
the  mother  to  insist  that  Mozart  should  make 
a  wTitten  contract  of  marriage.  The  contract 
was  drawn  up  in  this  form  :  — 

"  I  bind  myself  to  marry  ]\Ille.  Constance 
Weber  in  the  course  of  three  years ;  and  if  it 
should  so  happen,  which  I  consider  impossible, 
that  I  change  my  mind,  she  shall  be  entitled 


io6  WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 

to  draw  on  me  every  year  for  three  hundred 
florins," 

Mozart,  in  a  letter  to  his  father,  naively 
comments  upon  this  contract :  — 

"  Nothing  in  the  world  could  be  easier  than 
to  write  this:  for  I  knew  that  the  payment  of 
the  three  hundred  florins  never  would  be  ex- 
acted, because  I  never  could  forsake  her ;  and 
if,  unhappily,  I  altered  my  views,  I  would  only 
be  too  glad  to  get  rid  of  her  by  paying  the  three 
hundred  florins  ;  and  Constance,  as  I  know  her, 
would  be  too  proud  to  let  herself  be  sold  in  this 
way." 

Constance  had  a  more  summary  way  of 
deahng  with  this  contract.  After  the  guar- 
dian had  gone,  she  demanded  it  of  her 
mother,  and  resolutely  tore  it  to  pieces,  say- 
ing to  her  lover,  "  Dear  Mozart,  I  require 
no  written  contract  from  you  ;  I  rely  on  your 
promises." 

In  January  (1782)  he  again  asks  his  father's 
consent,  and  is  busy  devising  ways  and  means 
to  procure  money,  first,  for  the  performance 
of  the  marriage  ceremony,  and  second,  for 
support  after  marriage.  He  writes  that  he 
has  in  view  three  sources  of  income  :  first,  tlie 
composition  of  music  for  a  new  military  band 
about  to  be  organized  by  Prince  Lichtenstein  ; 


WOLFGANG  AMADEUS  MOZART.  107 

second,  the  Emperor  and  the  Archduke  Maxi- 
miUan  ;  and,  third,  his  pupils.  More  troubles 
begin  to  crowd  in  upon  the  luckless  lovers. 
Malicious  gossips  are  not  only  spreading  stories 
about  them,  and  Mozart's  father  giving  ear  to 
them,  but  Constance's  mother,  who  all  along 
has  favored  the  alliance,  now  begins  to  grow 
indifferent  to  it,  and  demands  that  if  they  are 
united  they  shall  stay  with  her ;  to  which 
Constance  is  opposed,  and  Mozart,  with  a 
wholesome  fear  of  mothers-in-law,  decidedly 
objects.  Indifference  soon  becomes  irrita- 
tion, and  there  is  wrangling  in  the  household, 
and  the  mother  accosts  the  young  lovers  with 
sneering  remarks.  At  last  there  is  a  quarrel 
even  between  Mozart  and  Constance  over  a 
petty  matter ;  but  it  is  only  an  April  shower. 
The  cloud  passes  quickly  over,  and  the  sun 
shines  again ;  but  the  future  mother-in-law 
remains  cloudy  with  frequent  storms,  and  at 
last  the  house  becomes  so  hot  that  Constance 
quits  it  for  the  domicile  of  the  Baroness  Wald- 
stadten,  —  a  somewhat  flighty,  eccentric,  and 
not  altogether  reputable  person,  but  a  good 
friend  to  them.  This  step  precipitated  the 
marriage.  Madame  Weber  threatened  to  send 
the  police  to  remove  her  daughter  from  the 
Baroness's  house.     Mozart  and  Constance 


lo8  WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 

decide  to  marry  at  once.  He  writes  his  father 
of  his  intentions  ;  and  the  latter  gives  his  con- 
sent, coupled  with  the  condition,  however, 
that  he  must  expect  nothing  in  future  from 
him.  His  opera,  "  Die  Entfuhrung,"  had 
been  performed,  July  12,  with  great  success, 
and  secured  him  the  means  for  the  ceremony. 
They  were  married,  August  4,  in  very  simple 
style,  at  the  house  of  the  Baroness,  four  or 
five  persons  being  present.  Three  days  later 
Mozart  writes  his  father  :  — 

"  Our  sole  wedding  festivities  consisted  of  a 
supper  which  Baroness  Waldstadten  gave  us ; 
and,  indeed,  it  was  more  princely  than  baronial. 
My  darling  is  now  a  hundred  times  more  joyful 
at  the  idea  of  going  to  Salzburg ;  and  I  am  will- 
ing to  stake  —  ay,  my  very  life,  that  you  will 
rejoice  still  more  in  my  happiness  when  you 
really  know  her,  if  indeed,  in  your  estimation  as 
in  mine,  a  high-principled,  honest,  virtuous,  and 
'pleasing  wife  ought  to  make  a  man  happy." 

Eighteen  years  after  Mozart's  death,  his 
widow  married  the  Danish  councillor,  M. 
Nissen,  and  lived  with  him  in  Copenhagen ; 
and  her  declining  years  were  spent,  in  con- 
junction with  her  husband,  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  memoirs  of  the  distinguished 
composer. 


WOLFGANG  AMADEUS  MOZART.  109 

Notwithstanding  many  pinches  of  poverty 
and  burdens  of  debt,  their  life  together  was 
a  happy  one.  Their  mutual  love  never  de- 
creased, but  burned  strong  and  clear  to  the 
end.  She  was  his  constant  guide  and  moni- 
tor. She  brightened  all  his  days  with  her 
loving  words  and  letters,  and  his  love  for  her 
was  always  tender  and  delicate.  She  was  a 
prudent  manager  of  his  domestic  affans,  a 
safe  counsellor  in  business  matters,  always 
a  cheerful  companion,  and  tended  him  in  his 
last  days  with  unfaltering  devotion  until  the 
final  bitter  moment,  when  she  flung  herself 
upon  his  bed  and  prayed  to  die  with  him. 
The  influence  of  Aloysia  upon  his  music 
showed  itself  by  the  production  of  numerous 
brilliant  arias  which  he  wrote  for  her ;  but  all 
his  great  works,  Die  Entfuhrung,"  "  Ido- 
meneo,"  "  Don  Giovanni,"  "  Die  Zauberflote," 
"  Nozze di Figaro,"  " Cosi fan  Tutti,"  "Titus," 
the  "  Ave  Verum,"  and  the  "  Requiem,"  were 
written  after  his  marriage ;  and  every  one  of 
them  bears,  in  greater  or  less  degree,  the 
imprint  of  Constance's  influence.  She  took 
special  care  of  his  health,  which  was  always 
delicate,  so  that  his  work  might  not  be  inter- 
rupted. She  not  only  spurred  him  on  to  the 
fulfilment  of  his  engagements ;  but  when  it 


no  WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


happened  that  he  was  over-burdened  with 
work,  at  which  times  he  was  apt  to  pursue 
his  fancies  late  into  the  night  to  his  physical 
detriment,  she  devised  various  means  to  re- 
lieve him.  Her  devotion  to  him  in  this  regard 
was  untiring.  He  immortalized  her  in  the 
"  Entfiihrung,"  written  when  they  were  lovers. 
The  main  idea  of  the  opera  is  based  upon 
their  relations  to  each  other;  and  in  it  he 
pictures  himself  in  the  character  of  Belmonte^ 
and  her  in  that  of  Constanza.  The  Mass  in 
C  minor  was  written  by  him  as  a  votive  offer- 
ing for  her  recovery  in  her  first  confinement, 
and  she  sung  the  solos  at  the  first  public  per- 
formance. She  was  passionately  fond  of  the 
Bach  and  Handel  fugues,  and  never  ceased 
her  entreaties  until  he  commenced  writing  in 
this  form.  The  "  Don  Giovanni,"  "  Zauber- 
flote,"  and  "Requiem"  are  largely  due  to 
her.  In  his  dedications  her  name  does  not 
appear  as  frequently  as  Aloysia's,  for  we  only 
find  six  solfeggi,  a  fugue,  two  sonatas,  and  an 
aria  written  for  her ;  but  there  was  no  need 
of  specifying  her  name  where  almost  every- 
thing was  due  to  her  love,  her  care,  and 
her  encouragement.  In  delicate  health  and 
straitened  circumstances,  the  victim  often  of 
bitter  musical  jealousies,  harassed  by  business 


WOLFGANG  AMADEUS  MOZART,  in 

complications,  with  which  he  was  unfitted  to 
contend,  it  is  due  to  her,  not  only  that  he 
produced  so  much,  but  that  his  music  pre- 
served all  its  original  joyousness,  sweetness, 
and  freshness,  and  that  it  has  done  so  much 
to  bless  and  gladden  humanity. 


FRANZ  SCHUBERT. 

Truly,  Schubert  is  animated  by  a  spark  of  the 
divine  fire.  —  Beethoven  {on  his  death-bed). 

RANZ  SCHUBERT,  if  not  the  cre- 
ator, certainly  the  ablest  and  clearest 
exponent,  of  the  German  Lied,  wrote 
from  his  inner  life ;  and  his  music,  so  full  of 
beauty  and  melodiousness,  only  recently  ap- 
preciated and  known,  will  place  him,  in  the 
near  future,  upon  still  loftier  heights  than  he 
now  occupies.  The  life  out  of  which  he  wrote 
was  in  the  main  a  sad  one.  There  were  days 
of  cheer  and  gladness ;  but  the  most  of  them 
were  set  to  a  minor  key,  so  full  of  sadness  and 
of  suffering  that  they  appeal  to  personal  sym- 
patliy,  though  their  experiences  richly  colored 
all  he  wrote.  Exquisite  as  his  songs  are,  they 
did  not  find  a  publisher  until  near  his  death, 


FRANZ  SCHUBERT.  113 

and  his  best  works  were  not  known  to  the 
world  until  long  after  the  grave  closed  over 
him ;  while  even  now  there  remain  treasures 
of  his  melody  no  voice  has  yet  sung.  Dwell- 
ing by  the  side  of  Beethoven,  as  he  now  sleeps 
by  his  side,  the  latter  never  knew  the  worth  of 
his  music  until  it  was  shown  him  on  his  death- 
bed ;  and  then  he  recognized  "  the  divine 
spark  "  of  Schubert's  genius.  In  all  beauty 
there  is  sadness.  It  is  the  test  of  beauty  in 
Nature,  in  humanity,  and  in  music.  It  deter- 
mines the  motive  of  Beethoven's  grandest 
works.  It  colors  with  exquisite  tints  the 
measures  of  Chopin,  most  poetic  of  all  mu- 
sicians. It  is  constantly  present  in  Schubert's 
works,  though  not  one  of  them  is  morbid. 
We  may  say  that  Schubert  himself  was  morbid. 
Certainly,  sadness  was  almost  the  constant 
habit  of  his  life,  dispelled  now  and  then  by 
an  excess  of  hilarity,  which  when  it  was  ended 
only  left  him  sadder  than  before ;  but  his 
music  does  not  reflect  this  organic  morbid- 
ness and  despondency  so  much  as  it  does  the 
effort  to  get  out  of  the  shadow  into  the  sun- 
shine. In  this  struggle  he  poured  out  the 
rich  treasures  of  his  genius  with  marvellous 
energy  and  industry.  They  reflect  the  beauty 
of  the  sunlight,  but  the  sun  is  always  shining 
8 


114 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


through  the  cloud.  Thus,  in  great  degree  the 
exponent  of  the  common  lot,  his  songs  go  to 
the  heart,  because  they  are  full  of  the  sorrows 
and  the  sympathies  of  the  heart,  tempering  its 
joys.  So  long  as  there  are  voices  to  sing, 
the  ^^ErlKing,"  the  "Wanderer,"  the  "Ave 
Maria,"  the  "  Serenade,"  and  the  gems  of 
the  "  Winterreise  "  will  be  sung,  because  they 
reflect  the  awful  sadness  of  the  supernatural, 
the  pathos  of  the  homeless,  the  piteous  appeal 
of  the  soul  to  Heaven,  and  the  sad  and  tender 
beauty  of  ideal  love.  It  is  a  great  genius 
singing  by  divine  right  out  from  the  depths 
of  his  own  sadness  what  is  most  sacred  to 
every  other  heart.  Search  all  through  the 
long  catalogue  of  his  works,  from  song  to 
symphony,  and  while  you  may  find  outbursts 
of  joy,  you  \vill  rarely  find  the  triviality  of 
humor ;  while  you  may  discover  the  con- 
stant expression  of  sorrow  and  tenderness  and 
pathos,  there  is  no  complaint. 

The  sadness  of  Schubert's  life  is  more  than 
once  expressed  in  his  letters  and  diary.  In 
the  latter  (1816)  he  writes  :  — 

"  Man  bears  misfortune  uncomplainingly,  and 
for  that  reason  feels  it  all  the  more  acutely. 
For  what  purpose  did  God  create  in  us  these 
keen  sympathies  ? " 


FRANZ  SCHUBERT. 


To  his  friend  Kupelwieser,  professor  at 
the  Kiinstakademie  in  Vienna,  he  writes 
(1824):- 

"  Picture  to  yourself  a  man  whose  health  can 
never  be  re-established,  who  from  sheer  despair 
makes  matters  worse  instead  of  better,  —  picture 
to  yourself,  I  say,  a  man  whose  most  brilliant 
hopes  have  come  to  nothing,  to  whom  the  happi- 
ness of  proffered  love  and  friendship  is  but  an- 
guish, whose  enthusiasm  for  the  beautiful  (an 
inspired  feehng  at  least)  threatens  to  vanish 
altogether,  —  and  then  ask  yourself  if  such  a 
condition  does  not  represent  a  miserable  and 
unhappy  man." 

And  to  this  burst  of  grief  he  adds  the 
hopeless  words  of  Gretchen  :  — 

**  Meine  Ruh'  ist  bin,  mein  Ilerz  ist  schwer  : 
Ich  finde  sie  nimmer  und  nimmermehr." 

How  this  sadness  affected  his  music  he  more 
than  once  tells  us.    His  diary  says  :  — 

*'  Grief  sharpens  the  understanding,  and 
strengthens  the  soul  ;  whereas  joy  seldom 
troubles  itself  about  the  former,  and  makes  the 
latter  either  effeminate  or  frivolous." 

In  his  "  Dream  "  he  says  :  — 

"  For  many,  many  long  years  I  sang  my  Lieder. 
If  I  would  fain  sing  of  love,  it  turned  to  pain ;  if 


Il6  WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 

I  would  sing  of  pain,  it  turned  to  love.  Thus  I 
was  divided  between  love  and  sorrow." 

Still  more  decidedly  does  he  express  himself 
in  his  diary  (1824)  :  — 

"  My  productions  in  music  are  the  product  of 
the  understanding,  and  spring  from  my  sorrow  ; 
those  only  which  are  the  product  of  pain  seem  to 
please  the  great  world  most." 

Schubert  had  many  sentimental  friendships 
inspired  of  his  music,  but  he  was  not  an  easy 
victim  to  love ;  consequently  his  attachments 
were  not  at  all  serious,  except  in  one  instance 
to  be  alluded  to  hereafter,  and  that  of  so  ab- 
surd a  sort  as  to  be  almost  incomprehensible, 
not  the  less  so  that  it  involved  an  abrupt  tran- 
sition from  a  femme  de  chambre  to  her  mistress, 
a  princess.  He  was  susceptible  to  female 
charms,  and  had  several  alleged  "affairs  of 
the  heart ;  "  but  he  said  little  about  them  and 
wrote  still  less.  He  was  accustomed  to 
make  himself  merry  over  the  dolors  of  his 
friends  who  were  in  love,  and  is  constantly 
bantering  them  in  his  letters  and  in  his  daily 
intercourse  with  them.  It  is  questionable 
whether  he  ever  seriously  thought  of  marry- 
ing, though  in  his  diary  he  once  writes  quite 
sentimentally  :  — 


FRANZ  SCHUBERT. 


117 


"  Happy  is  he  who  finds  a  true  friend  ;  happier 
still  is  he  who  finds  in  his  wife  a  true  friend. 
To  the  free  man  at  this  time  marriage  is  a 
frightful  thought :  he  confounds  it  either  with 
melancholy  or  low  sensuality." 

From  this  we  may  infer  that  if  he  had 
married  it  would  have  been  in  a  Platonic 
sense.  He  was  by  no  means  proof  against 
the  tender  passion,  but  it  attacked  him  so 
lightly  that  he  never  compromised  himself. 
He  was  not  a  stranger  to  deep  and  true  af- 
fection, but  physically  he  was  not  cast  in  a 
mould  to  be  attractive  to  women.  Had  he 
been  more  fortunate  in  the  latter  regard,  it  is 
entirely  probable  that  he  might  have  married, 
and  that,  under  happy  domestic  influences, 
much  of  the  sorrow  of  his  life  might  have 
been  avoided.  Nevertheless  this  man  with 
a  tender,  loving  soul,  and  a  nature  full  of 
beautiful  traits,  set  in  an  unattractive  frame, 
had  relations  and  friendships  with  the  gentler 
sex  which  deeply  influenced  his  music,  though 
in  the  case  to  which  I  have  referred  they  were 
as  bizarre  and  inconsistent  as  could  well  be 
imagined. 

One  of  the  earhest  of  his  compositions  to 
attract  public  attention  was  his  Mass  in  F, 
written  for  a  festival  of  the  parish  church  at 


Il8  WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 

Lichtenthal,  which  he  himself  conducted.  The 
soprano  part  was  sung  by  Theresa  Grob,  a 
vocalist  of  considerable  repute.  Attracted  by 
her  voice  and  by  the  musical  abilities  of  her 
brother,  he  had  become  at  this  time  a  frequent 
visitor  at  her  home.  Many  of  his  masses  and 
other  compositions  were  rehearsed  there,  and 
several  of  his  earlier  songs  were  first  sung  by 
her  in  these  musical  gatherings.  His  interest 
in  her,  at  first  musical,  soon  became  personal ; 
but  it  never  advanced  beyond  the  limits  of  a 
romantic  attachment,  which  was  ended  not 
long  after  by  her  very  unromantic  marriage 
to  a  baker.  During  his  comparatively  brief 
relations  with  the  family  he  wrote  a  "  Tantum 
Ergo  "  and  "  Salve  Regina  "  for  Theresa,  and 
an  adagio  and  rondo  for  her  brother,  who 
played  with  great  skill,  both  upon  the  piano 
and  'cello.  That  he  must  have  written  many 
songs  for  her  is  also  shown  by  the  fact  that  the 
descendants  of  the  Grob  family  still  possess  a 
large  number  of  his  compositions  which  have 
never  been  made  public. 

The  great  artist,  Anna  Milder,  for  whom 
Cherubini  wrote  the  part  of  Fafiiska,  and 
Beethoven  that  of  Leonora  in  his  "  Fidelio," 
also  played,  an  important  part  in  Schubert's 
musical  productivity.    She  corresponded  with 


FRANZ  SCHUBERT. 


119 


him  for  several  years ;  and  her  letters  are  re- 
plete with  valuable  suggestions  of  themes  for 
music,  for  which  duty  her  long  and  varied 
experiences  peculiarly  adapted  her,  while  she 
also  made  some  of  her  most  emphatic  suc- 
cesses in  singing  his  songs.  Among  other 
compositions  written  for  her,  was  ''Zuleika's 
Second  Song,"  of  wfiich  she  says  in  a  letter  to 
him,  '  Zuleika's  Second  Song '  is  divine,  and 
each  time  I  sing  it  my  eyes  fill  with  tears ;  " 
and  the  "  Hirt  auf  dem  Felsen,"  in  which  he 
departed  from  his  usual  Lied  style  by  making 
the  song  of  a  bravura  character  to  suit  her 
dramatic  method.  She  suggested  to  him 
.many  of  Goethe's  poems  for  music,  gave  him 
some  very  valuable  advice  about  his  opera 
"Alfonso  and  Estrella,"  and  was  the  first 
singer  to  call  special  attention  to  his  "  Erl 
King,"  though  she  did  not  make  such  an  im- 
mense success  with  it  as  Schroder-Devrient, 
who  drew  from  Goethe  the  remark  :  ^'  Exe- 
cuted as  you  execute  it,  the  whole  becomes  a 
complete  picture." 

Marie  Pachler,  whose  influence  upon  Beet- 
hoven we  have  already  seen,  also  occupied  a 
prominent  place  in  Schubert's  musical  hfe. 
At  the  time  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  the 
Pachler  family,  it  consisted  of  the  husband, 


120  WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


Carl  Pachler,  Marie,  and  their  son  Faust.  We 
have  already  seen,  in  the  Beethoven  chapter, 
that  she  was  a  lady  of  rare  musical  accom- 
plishments and  intellectual  ability,  and  her 
home  was  the  favorite  rendezvous  of  com- 
posers and  artists.  In  1827  the  family  lived 
in  Gratz,  and  in  that  year  Beethoven  had 
intended  visiting  them.  He  died  about  that 
time,  however,  and  Schubert  filled  his  place, 
going  there  with  his  friend  Jenger,  who  was 
to  have  accompanied  Beethoven.  Many  of 
his  happiest  days  were  spent  in  the  charming 
society  of  this  family.  Many  singers  came 
and  went.  Excursions  were  made  into  the 
surrounding  country.  Little  musical  parties 
were  given.  Schubert  sang  his  old  Lieder, 
and  wrote  many  new  ones.  Though  at  that 
time  in  the  very  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death, 
they  were  the  happiest  days  of  his  life.  His 
visit  is  immortalized  by  numerous  composi- 
tions. Belonging  to  those  days  are  the  songs, 
"DasWeinen,"  Vor  meinerWiege,"  "  Heim- 
Hches  Lieben,"  and  "  Silvia,"  which  are  dedi- 
cated to  Madame  Pachler ;  the  "  Scotch  Ballad," 
of  Herder,  written  at  her  suggestion ;  the 
"  Schluchtgesang,"  for  double  chorus ;  the 
"  Standchen,"  the  Nachtgesang  im  Wald  " 
chorus,  an  Italian  cantata,  and  many  pieces 


FRANZ  SCHUBERT. 


121 


of  dance-music,  among  them  the  Valses 
Nobles  "  and  Originaltanze."  His  music 
during  this  visit  was  of  a  very  cheerful  char- 
acter ;  but  immediately  after  his  return  home 
he  composed  the  exquisitely  beautiful  but 
sorrowful  cyclus  of  songs  known  as  the  Winter- 
reise,  in  some  of  which  it  almost  seems  as  if 
he  recognized  the  shadows  of  the  sad  fate  so 
swiftly  approaching  him. 

Dr.  Wegeler,  in  speaking  of  Beethoven's 
numerous  attachments,  says,  in  every  man's 
life  there  is  one  complete  love  episode.  Schu- 
bert is  an  exception  to  this  rule.  There  was 
an  episode  in  his  life  which  he  unquestionably 
thought  was  complete  from  an  amatory  point 
of  view ;  though,  to  the  practical,  unromantic 
reader,  it  must  have  a  serio-comic  if  not  even 
a  grotesque  aspect.  In  1818,  then  a  young 
man  of  twenty-one,  Schubert  was  recom- 
mended as  a  music-teacher  to  Count  John 
Esterhazy.  The  latter,  who  was  a  princely 
patron  of  music,  recognizing  at  once  his  abili- 
ties, proposed  that  he  should  enter  his  family, 
spending  the  winters  with  him  in  Vienna,  and 
the  summers  at  his  country  estates.  It  was 
an  offer  which  Schubert  gladly  accepted.  The 
Count  had  two  daughters,  —  Caroline,  then 
eleven  years  of  age ;  and  Marie,  two  years 


122 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


older.  Both  had  excellent  voices,  the  one 
soprano,  and  the  other  alto,  and  became  his 
pupils.  He  soon  was  a  favorite  in  the  family, 
and  was  treated  as  an  intimate.  The  atmos- 
phere was  a  very  musical  one  ;  but  it  speedily 
grew  romantic  also  on  Schubert's  part,  though 
no  one  else  shared  in  his  affairs  of  the  heart. 
He  first  devoted  himself  to  a  flirtation  with 
one  of  the  servants,  a  femme  de  chambre  to 
the  Princess  Caroline  ;  to  which  at  least  we  are 
indebted  for  the  exquisite  "  Divertissement  a 
la  Hongroise,"  the  themes  of  which  are  the 
Hungarian  melodies  he  heard  her  humming 
as  she'  went  about  her  work.  Finding  that 
there  was  no  response  from  the  maid,  he  at 
once  transferred  his  affections  to  the  child 
Caroline  ;  and  notwithstanding  the  ridiculous 
disparity  of  age,  the  hopeless  disparity  in  rank, 
and  the  general  absurdity  of  the  relation,  his 
admiration  of  her  developed  into  an  earnest, 
fervent  passion,  which  continued  even  to  his 
death.  The  child  was  not  too  young  to  ap- 
preciate his  genius,  to  admire  his  music,  or  to 
be  sincerely  attached  to  him  as  a  friend ;  but 
she  was  too  young,  not  only  to  reciprocate  his 
passion,  but  even  to  conceive  of  it  or  under- 
stand it.  She  went  on  with  her  music  enthu- 
siastically, and  was  quite  as  enthusiastic  in  her 


FRANZ  SCHUBERT. 


123 


admiration  of  the  genius  of  poor  Schubert ; 
thu5  continually  adding  to  the  flame  she  had 
kindled  in  his  heart  without  being  aware  of  it. 
She  always  remained  a  good  friend  to  him, 
and  one  of  the  most  devoted  admirers  of  his 
songs,  as  well  as  her  sister  Marie,  who  did  all 
she  could  to  assuage  his  pangs  of  heart  when 
he  found  his  passion  was  hopeless.  She  was 
not  married  until  many  years  after  his  death. 
Some  biographers  declare  the  age  of  Caroline 
at  this  time  to  have  been  but  seven  years, 
which  would  make  his  attachment  still  more 
inexplicable.  Leaving  the  affair  of  the  heart, 
however,  there  is  no  question  that  the  young 
Princess,  as  well  as  the  whole  family,  exercised 
a  powerful  influence  upon  his  musical  work. 
He  himself  has  left  a  record  of  Caroline's  influ- 
ence upon  him ;  for  upon  one  occasion,  being 
reproached  by  her  for  not  dedicating  more  of 
his  music  to  her,  he  replied  in  the  most  abrupt 
and  passionate  manner,  "  ^^'hat  is  the  use  of 
that,  when  ever}thing  I  A^Tite  belong  to  you  ?  " 
It  was  under  her  influence  and  that  of  her 
sister  that  he  ^Tote  the  songs,  "  AbendHed," 
"Blondel  zu  Marien,"  "  Ungeduld,"  "  Des 
Miillers  Blumen,"  ^- Erlafsee,"  "Sehnsucht," 
Am  Strom,"  and  "  Der  Jungling  auf  dem 
Hugel,"  the  trio  in  E  flat.  t«-o  overtures  for 


124  WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


four  hands,  several  waltzes,  the  "  French  Ro- 
mance "  in  E  minor,  the  Fantasie  in  F  minor, 
the  Variations  (op.  35),  and  a  piano  duet 
(op.  140).  All  these  works,  besides  many 
manuscripts  not  yet  known  to  the  public,  are 
clearly  attributable  to  the  Esterhazy  family. 

Though  Schubert  never  knew  the  happiness 
of  love,  he  has  sung  of  it  with  the  purest 
ideal  feeling.  Though  his  life  was  clouded 
with  sadness,  he  has  given  to  the  world  im- 
mortal pictures  in  tones  of  the  tenderest, 
loveliest,  and  truest  aspirations  of  the  heart. 
Though  he  died  wretchedly  poor  in  this 
world's  goods,  he  bequeathed  to  the  world  a 
rich  legacy,  —  the  outpouring  of  a  beautiful 
soul's  musical  wealth.  The  wastes  of  sorrow 
which  stretch  across  his  life  were  made  beau- 
tiful with  exquisite  flowers  of  song,  whose 
perfume  will  never  be  lost  and  whose  beauty 
will  never  fade. 


ROBERT  SCHUMANN. 

Beneath  these  flowers  I  dream,  a  silent  chord. 
I  cannot  wake  my  own  strings  to  music ;  but  under 
the  hands  of  those  who  comprehend  me,  I  become 
an  eloquent  friend.  Wanderer,  ere  thou  goest,  try 
me.  The  more  trouble  thou  takest  with  me,  the 
more  lovely  will  be  the  tones  with  which  I  shall 
reward  thee.  —  Eusebius. 

HERE  was  but  one  woman  to  whom 
Schumann  was  indebted  for  inspira- 
tion ;  and  that  was  the  woman  who 
was  the  nearest  and  dearest  to  him  of  all 
women,  his  wife.  Affianced  to  him  by  love 
and  a  kindred  spirit  in  musical  genius,  she 
roused  hnn  to  musical  effort,  she  shared  in 
his  triumphs  while  he  was  living,  and,  from 
the  day  of  his  sad  and  untimely  death  until 
now,  she  has  revealed  the  beauty  of  his 
music  to  the  world.  If  he  were  a  creator  by 
the  divine  right  of  genius,  by  the  same  divine 


126 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


right  she  has  been  the  interpreter.  The  bond 
of  love  and  the  affinity  of  music  drew  them 
together  in  an  attachment  nothing  but  death 
was  strong  enough  to  break.  His  name,  his 
fame,  his  memory,  she  has  preserved,  and 
made  still  more  beautiful  by  her  own  genius, 
and  by  the  force,  and  influence  of  her  noble 
womanhoo  1.  Clara  Schumann  has  kept  her 
husband's  laurels  green,  has  placed  wreaths 
of  immortelles  upon  his  grave,  and  has  em- 
balmed his  name  in  an  immortal  love  which 
had  its  birth  in  music,  and  which  still  knows 
no  more  beautiful  or  tender  expression  than 
in  the  revelation  of  that  music  to  the  world, 
though  twenty-five  years  have  gone  since  the 
poor  crazed  brain  ceased  its  work. 

Clara  Wieck,  daughter  of  Friedrich  Wieck, 
the  well-known  teacher,  who  numbered  such 
musicians  as  Schumann,  Von  Biilow,  Krause, 
Spindler,  and  Merkel  among  his  pupils,  was 
born  in  Leipsic  in  1819,  and  is  still  an  hon- 
ored and  favorite  artist  in  the  concert-room. 
She  commenced  studying  the  piano  with  her 
father  in  her  fifth  year,  and  at  nine  years  of 
age  played  in  a  public  concert.  Under  her 
father's  careful  tuition,  —  and  it  is  a  thousand 
pities  there  are  not  more  piano  teachers  like 
him,  —  she  made  slow  but  very  sure  progress. 


ROBERT  SCHUMANN.  127 

It  was  no  part  of  his  method  to  hurry  a  pupil. 
How  many  teachers  to-day  can  say  with  him  : 
"  I  have  ahvays  preferred  a  gradual,  even  a 
slow  development,  step  by  step,  which  often 
made  no  apparent  progress,  but  which  still 
proceeded  with  a  certain  constancy  and  with 
deliberation,  and  which  was  combined  with 
dreamy  sensibility  and  a  musical  instinct, 
requiring  slow  awakening,  and  even  with  a 
certain  flightiness,  one  for  which  the  patient 
labor  and  perseverance  of  six  years  or  more 
was  required,  and  where  childishness  allowed 
no  encouragement  to  sordid  speculations  for 
the  future  "  ?  In  her  eleventh  year  she  also 
commenced  the  study  of  composition  with 
Heinrich  Dorn.  Shortly  after  this  she  made 
a  concert-tour  to  Berlin,  Vienna,  and  other 
cities,  which  met  with  such  success  that  it 
decided  her  to  adopt  the  concert-stage,  and 
enter  upon  the  career  of  a  professional  artist. 
With  this  purpose  in  view  she  returned  to 
Leipsic,  and  resumed  her  studies,  which  were 
very  comprehensive  in  character,  including 
technique,  theory,  harmony,  counterpoint, 
instrumentation,  score-reading,  the  voice,  and 
the  violin.  The  foundations  of  her  future  great- 
ness as  a  virtuoso  were  laid  deep  and  strong. 
For  five  years,  from  1835  to  1840,  she  made 


128 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


concert-tours,  which  extended  her  reputation 
all  over  Germany  and  France ;  and  during 
this  period  she  did  more  than  any  other  in 
making  the  German  people  acquainted  with 
Chopin's  music.  All  her  associations  and 
surroundings  were  calculated  to  aid  her  in 
her  artistic  career,  and  to  prepare  the  way  for 
just  such  a  success  as  this  remarkable  woman 
has  achieved  in  her  long  and  honorable  public 
life  as  an  artist.  She  was  not  only  trained 
with  conscientious  fidelity  to  the  highest  and 
noblest  ideals  of  her  art,  but  she  was  brought 
up  in  a  musical  atmosphere.  At  a  very  early 
age  the  great  violinist  Paganini  was  astonished 
at  her  precocity  of  talent,  and  when  in  Leipsic 
played  with  her  almost  continually.  In  Paris 
she  heard  Chopin,  Liszt,  Kalkbrenner,  and 
other  prominent  artists ;  and  many  of  their 
works  she  played  for  the  first  time  in  Germany. 
She  had  already  commenced  the  work  of 
composition  ;  and  in  this  connection  a  review 
of  one  of  her  pieces,  the  "Soiree  fiir  das 
Pianoforte,"  Op.  6,  by  Schumann  himself,  will 
be  interesting.    He  says  :  — 

"On  one  side  this  composition  betrays  such 
a  tender  and  yet  superabundant  life  that  the 
most  silent  whisper  could  touch  it,  and  again 
such  riches  of  unusual  weahh  and  fulness  of 


ROBERT  SCHUMANN. 


129 


intricacies  and  solutions  as  only  the  most 
experienced  musicians  could  create.  Where 
Sebastian  Bach  digged  his  golden  treasures  in 
the  deepest  shafts  of  his  grand  musical  mines  ; 
where  Beethoven,  like  a  huge  giant,  flashes  up 
toward  the  brightest  regions  of  the  skies  ;  where 
the  present  masters  bring  forth  their  new  com- 
binations, endeavoring  to  reconcile  the  old  and 
new,  —  all  these  unexplored  regions  are  perfectly 
familiar  to  her,  and  yet  she  chats  about  them 
with  the  modesty  of  a  maiden,  and  at  the  same 
time  leads  one  to  expect  so  much  from  her  that 
one  hardly  knows  where  it  all  shall  end.  When 
you  listen  to  the  young  artist's  notes  on  the 
piano,  interpreting  her  own  innermost  emotion, 
one  cannot  imagine  how  it  is  done.  It  seems  al- 
most impossible  that  such  notes,  such  depths  of 
feelings,  can  be  written  on  paper  with  visible  signs. 
In  reality,  one  cannot  express  with  words  what 
she  is.  It  is  even  impossible  to  describe  the  im- 
pressions her  playing  makes,  not  to  speak  of 
what  she  does  to  create  such  sensations." 

There  is  something  more  than  the  mere  criti- 
cal spirit  revealed  in  this  eulogium.  Read  be- 
tween the  lines,  it  is  not  difficult  to  discover 
the  human  passion  which  inspired  it. 

When  Schumann  first  met  Clara  Wieck,  she 
was  already  recognized  as  a  genius,  though 
but  a  child.  He  was  a  musical  student  of  a 
very  romantic  nature,  exquisitely  sensitive, 
moody  even  to  the  verge  of  melancholy,  and 
9 


130 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


completely  permeated  with  the  spirit  of  Jean 
Paul,  whose  works  he  had  closely  studied,  and 
whose  influence  was  already  visible  in  his  let- 
ters and  other  writings.  It  was  during  his 
visit  to  Leipsic  in  1828  that  he  became  ac- 
quainted with  Friedrich  Wieck.  He  formed 
a  strong  attachment  for  him  ;  and  the  remark- 
able musical  accomplishments  of  his  daughter 
Clara  led  him  to  seek  the  same  tuition  that 
had  developed  such  skill  in  her  case.  He  re- 
quested Wieck  to  teach  him ;  and  the  latter 
complied,  though  at  this  time  he  gave  him 
but  few  lessons,  and  these  were  not  satisfac- 
tory to  his  teacher,  as  Schumann  kept  himself 
within  the  narrow  range  of  mere  facility  in 
playing,  and,  with  the  same  persistence  that 
characterized  him  for  years  afterward,  de- 
clined to  perfect  himself  in  harmony.  He 
never  recognized  its  necessity  until  he  com- 
menced serious  work  for  the  orchestra,  and 
then  it  was  too  late  for  him  to  reach  his  com- 
plete development.  During  all  this  time  he 
had  been  studying  law  in  deference  to  the 
wishes  of  his  mother,  who  was  bent  upon 
making  him  a  lawyer,  while  he  was  equally  bent 
upon  following  music  as  a  profession.  At  last, 
in  1830,  he  writes  to  her,  desiring  her  to  con- 
sult with  Wieck,  saying  that  he  will  abide  by 


ROBERT  SCHUMANN.  131 

his  decision  whether  he  shall  continue  to  study 
law,  or  return  to  Leipsic  and  resume  his  musi- 
cal studies.  His  mother  complies  with  his 
wish,  and  writes  to  Wieck  :  — 

"All  rests  on  your  decision, —  the  peace  of  a 
loving  mother,  the  whole  happiness  for  life  of 
a  young  and  inexperienced  man,  who  lives  but 
in  a  higher  sphere  and  will  have  nothing  to  do 
with  practical  life.  I  know  that  you  love  music. 
Do  not  let  your  feehngs  plead  for  Robert,  but 
consider  his  years,  his  fortune,  his  powers,  and 
his  future." 

Wieck  had  already  considered  his  powers 
and  his  future  during  the  short  time  he  had 
taught  him,  and  he  replied  at  once  in  favor 
of  Schumann's  musical  plans.  The  mother 
thereupon  withdrew  all  opposition;  and  the 
son  enthusiastically  writes  to  his  old  teacher, 
"Trust  me,  I  will  deserve  the  name  of  your 
scholar ; "  and  to  his  guardian,  "  I  was  born 
for  music,  and  will  remain  true  to  it,"  —  a 
promise  never  broken. 

At  Michaelmas,  1830,  Schumann  arrived  at 
Leipsic,  and  resumed  his  studies.  At  the 
commencement  of  this  chapter  I  have  quoted 
from  Wieck  to  show  that  he  beheved  in  the 
old  maxim  of  hastening  slowly.  Schumann 
was  impatient,  and  by  over-practice  in  the 


132  WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


prosecution  of  a  system  of  his  own  devising, 
lost  the  use  of  his  right  hand.  This  ended 
his  studies  with  Wieck,  and  his  professional 
career  as  a  pianist.  He  now  entered  upon 
the  higher  career  of  a  composer ;  upon  which 
Clara  Wieck  was  to  exercise  a  powerful  in- 
fluence, and  also  shone  out  speedily  with  re- 
markable brilliancy  as  a  critic  in  the  "  Neue 
Zeitschrift  fiir  Musik,"  in  the  columns  of  which 
Florestan,  Eusebius,  Raro,  and  Serpentinus 
soon  became  as  familiar  as  household  names. 
Schumann  entered  upon  his  work  with  all  the 
romance,  zeal,  fire,  and  freshness  of  youth. 
He  heralded  Chopin  as  the  rising  star  in  music, 
and  first  made  him  known  by  his  criticisms, 
as  Clara  did  afterward  by  her  interpretations 
of  his  music.  Jealousy  was  a  thing  unknown 
to  him.  He  did  more  than  any  other  to  es- 
tablish the  fame,  not  only  of  Chopin,  but  of 
Franz,  Heller,  Gade,  and  Henselt,  and  was 
one  of  the  first  to  recognize  the  genius  of 
Berlioz,  besides  fighting  a  life-long  battle  for 
Schubert,  Mendelssohn,  and  Hiller. 

Up  to  this  time  Schumann's  interest  in  Clara 
Wieck  was  purely  of  an  artistic  character ; 
but  even  now  she  was  influencing  him,  for  in 
1833  we  find  his  "Impromptus"  for  piano 
upon  a  romanza  which  had  been  published 


ROBERT  SCHUMANN. 


by  her.  The  theme  was  a  favorite  one  with 
her,  and  he  wrote  eleven  variations  upon  it ; 
and  the  next  year  she  appears  in  that  pictu- 
resque and  fanciful  masquerade  in  notes,  the 
"  Carnival,"  under  the  pseudonyme  of  "  Chi- 
arina."  In  1835  ^  sonata  appeared  "dedi- 
cated by  Florestan  and  Eusebius  to  Clara." 
In  1836  his  interest  in  Clara  Wieck  became 
not  only  artistic  but  personal.  He  fell  deeply 
in  love  with  her,  and  from  that  moment  a 
struggle  for  her  possession  commenced.  Of 
that  struggle  he  writes,  in  1839,  to  Heinrich 
Dorn  :  — 

"There  is  much  in  my  music,  no  doubt,  that 
might  seem  like  a  narrative  of  the  struggle  for 
the  possession  of  my  Clara.  You  have  probably 
been  able  to  understand  it.  These  very  troubles 
have  solely  given  the  impulse  to  the  '  Concerto,' 
the  '  Sonata,'  the  '  Davidsbiindlertanze,'  the 
•  Kreisleriana,'  and  the  '  Noveletten.'  " 

Up  to  1840  Schumann  had  not  written  a 
single  song ;  but  after  he  found  that  she  was 
really  his  own,  no  less  than  one  hundred  and 
thirty-eight  of  the  most  beautiful  songs  ever 
written  attested  his  happiness.  The  father 
opposed  their  union,  and  it  is  doubtful 
whether  his  passion  was  at  first  returned. 
They  were  separated  for  some  time  by  a 


134  WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


concert-tour  made  by  Clara  and  her  father ; 
but  through  a  third  party  Schumann  managed 
to  hear  from  her,  and  to  this  party  he  writes, 
March  i,  1836  :  — 

"  Clara  Wieck  loves,  and  is  loved.  You  might 
easily  discover  it  by  her  gentle,  almost  heavenly 
look  and  mien.  Pardon  me  if  I  omit  for  the 
present  her  lover's  name.  The  happy  pair  met, 
saw,  spoke,  and  became  engaged,  without  her 
father's  knowledge.  He  has  discovered  it,  would 
cut  it  down,  forbids  all  intercourse  on  pain  of 
death  ;  but  they  have  braved  him  a  thousand 
times.  .  .  .  Now  comes  my  most  heartfelt  prayer 
that  you  will  let  me  know  all  you  can  learn, 
directly  or  indirectly,  concerning  Clara,  her 
feelings,  and  her  life." 

In  1837  he  wrote  to  Wieck,  asking  for 
the  hand  of  his  daughter;  and  his  answer 
may  be  inferred  from  the  following  extract 
from  a  letter  written  to  his  sister-in-law, 
Theresa :  — 

"  The  old  man  won't  let  Clara  leave  him  yet ; 
he 's  too  fond  of  her.  And  he  is  really  in  the 
right ;  for  he  thinks  we  ought  to  earn  more 
money  first,  so  that  we  may  live  comfortably." 

To  attain  that  object  he  went  to  Vienna, 
but  failed  in  his  purpose  ;  and  he  returned  to 
Leipsic,  and  once  more  sought  to  mollify  the 


ROBERT  SCHUMANN.  135 

obdurate  heart  of  Wieck,  who  again  refused 
his  consent.  He  then  appealed  to  the  law ; 
and  in  1840  the  Royal  Court  of  Appeals  re- 
quested the  father  to  yield,  which  paved  the 
way  to  their  union.  In  September  of  that 
year  he  met  her  at  Weimar  at  the  house  of  a 
friend,  and  their  nuptials  were  celebrated  on 
the  1 2th  of  that  month.  In  an  extract  already 
made  from  one  of  his  letters,  it  is  shown  that 
the  "  Noveletten,"  the  "  Kinderscenen,"  and 
the  "  Kreisleriana "  were  inspired  by  Clara 
Wieck.  It  might  be  added  that  all  his  piano 
compositions  from  1831  to  1840  —  and  they 
are  very  numerous  —  were  born  of  his  artistic 
and  personal  relations  to  her.  Not  only  this, 
but  she  inspired  all  his  lyrical  work  during  the 
year  1840,  which  includes  the  songs  already 
spoken  of,  revealing  his  inner  life  during  this 
period.  After  their  marriage  the  real  work  of 
his  life  began.  He  emancipated  himself  from 
the  narrow  Hmits  of  the  piano,  and  commenced 
writing  for  the  orchestra,  both  symphonies 
and  chamber-music.  It  was  the  real  work  of 
his  life  ;  and  the  symphonies  he  has  left,  par- 
ticularly the  B  flat  major  and  the  E  flat  major 
(the  Rhenish),  are  eloquent  suggestions  of 
what  he  might  have  accomplished,  following, 
as  he  did,  closely  in  the  footsteps  of  Beethoven, 


136 


IVOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


had  not  the  derangement  of  his  mental  faculties 
brought  his  life  to  a  tragic  close. 

Schumann  had  other  attachments  during  his 
life,  —  among  them,  those  for  an  amateur 
vocahst  named  Agnes  Carus,  whom  he  met  in 
Zwickau,  and  whose  singing  had  a  rare  fascina- 
tion over  him  ;  for  Clara  von  Kumer,  daughter 
of  Dr.  von  Kurner,  a  chemist  of  Augsburg,  of 
whom  he  writes  to  his  friend  Rosen,  "The 
lovely  Clara's  image  floats  before  me,  both 
sleeping  and  waking ;  "  and  with  Ernestine  von 
Fricken,  who  lived  at  Wieck's  house  in  1834, 
and  studied  the  piano,  whose  blooming  per- 
sonal charms  aroused  his  passion.  To  Hen- 
rietta Voigt,  the  wife  of  a  Leipsic  merchant, 
who  was  a  very  warm  and  influential  friend  of 
Schumann's  in  1834,  he  writes  in  his  Jean 
Paulish  way  :  — 

"  I  was  completely  exhausted  yesterday,  and 
your  letter  came.  It  soothed  me  like  an  angel's 
hand;  that  is,  for  a  day  and  night,  and  this 
morning  every  nerve  is  a  tear.  ...  Is  it  a  weak- 
ness to  confess  it?  'Tis  my  Ernestine  whom 
I  love  beyond  all  measure  ;  't  is  you,  Henri- 
etta, my  beloved  friend.  You  glorious  creature, 
what  can  I  offer  in  return  for  your  supreme  fa- 
vor ?  'T  is  said  that  those  who  love  each  other 
shall  meet  again  in  some  other  star,  where  they 
shall  live  and  rule  alone.  Let  us  hold  this  lovely 
saying  to  be  true." 


ROBERT  SCHUMANN.  137 

Schumann  sought  the  fair  Ernestine's  hand 
in  marriage,  but  his  suit  was  unsuccessful. 
Not  one  of  these  attachments,  however,  spe- 
cially influenced  him  in  musical  production. 
Clara  Schumann  was  the  genius  of  his  life, 
the  companion,  friend,  and  counsellor  of  liis 
work,  the  guide  and  inspirer  that  led  him  to 
his  highest  and  most  enduring  efforts.  Her 
ideal  of  art  was  always  the  purest  and  loftiest. 
As  an  artist  she  has  commanded  the  homage 
and  admiration  of  the  world.  As  a  woman 
she  stands  peerless  in  the  nobiUty,  dignity, 
and  beauty  of  her  womanhood.  Since  her 
husband's  death  she  has  been  his  faithful 
interpreter,  besides  editing  his  works.  The 
love  which  crowned  their  lives  ^^'ith  so  much 
happiness,  notwithstanding  the  cruelty  of  fate, 
still  remains,  and  keeps  the  memory  of  the 
composer  fresh  by  her  executive  tribute  to 
his  genius,  and  her  loving  and  skilful  interpre- 
tation of  his  works,  which  she  did  so  much  to 
inspire  and  help  produce. 


FELIX  MENDELSSOHN  BARTHOLDY. 

Mendelssohn  is  betrothed,  so  is  very  much  occu- 
pied, but  great  and  good  as  ever.  No  day  passes  in 
which  he  does  not  utter  at  least  two  thoughts  worthy 
to  be  graven  in  gold.  —  Schumann. 

EARLY  all  the  great  and  enduring 
music  of  the  world  has  been  con- 
ceived of  sorrow  or  born  in  the 
struggle  with  destiny.  The  exercise  of  the 
heroic  qualities  in  the  battle  of  life  has  called 
out  heroic  music.  Disappointments  in  life, 
the  pressure  of  poverty,  the  pangs  of  suffering, 
the  struggle  against  circumstances,  and  some- 
times the  spur  of  malicious  competition,  have 
aroused  qualities  of  character  in  composers 
which  have  reflected  themselves  in  their  mu- 
sic. These  elements  have  given  us  majesty, 
grandeur,  and  strength  in  music.  More  tran- 
quil lives,  kindly  smiled  upon  by  fate  and 


FELIX  MENDELSSOHN  BARTHOLDY,  139 

lifted  above  all  necessities,  undisturbed  by  care 
and  untouched  by  sorrow,  have  given  us 
beautiful,  graceful,  elegant  music,  strains  of 
enticing  melody,  and  measures  of  smooth, 
flowing  harmony,  but  rarely  rising  above  the 
world.  They  may  touch  the  heart,  but  they 
do  not  appeal  to  the  soul.  They  may  reveal 
the  beauties  of  the  earth  and  sky,  but  they  do 
not  go  beyond  finite  boundaries,  and  give  us 
glimpses  of  the  infinite. 

Felix  Mendelssohn's  music  belongs  to  this 
class,  and  his  life-currents  ran  in  channels  that 
were  never  vexed  by  a  storm.  Of  all  com 
posers,  it  might  almost  be  said  of  all  men,  his 
career  and  his  experiences  were  the  most 
fortunate.  He  belonged  to  a  family  remark- 
able for  its  talent  in  literature,  philosophy, 
music,  and  the  plastic  arts.  It  was,  moreover, 
a  wealthy  family ;  so  that  he  not  only  had 
every  advantage  which  wealth  could  procure 
in  his  studies,  but  during  his  entire  life  was 
enabled  to  surround  himself  wath  luxuries,  and 
at  no  time  was  obliged  to  compose  owing  to 
financial  straits.  He  was  brought  up  in  an 
atmosphere  of  art.  The  great  poets,  painters, 
composers,  singers,  and  players  of  Europe 
were  among  the  frequent  and  welcome  visitors 
at  his  home  fireside.    He  was  endowed  with 


140  WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 

rare  personal  beauty,  and  was  richly  gifted 
in  scholarship  and  accomplishments  of  various 
kinds,  as  well  as  in  those  qualities  of  head  and 
heart  which  attract  a  wide  circle  of  friends  and 
admirers.  There  was  no  sorrow  in  his  life 
until  his  sister  died,  and  then  he  succumbed 
to  grief  and  soon  passed  away.  The  smooth 
and  even  tenor  of  his  life  had  enervated  him, 
as  it  were ;  and  when  the  first  blow  came,  it 
crushed  him. 

To  estimate  the  influences  of  woman  upon 
Mendelssohn's  music,  it  is  not  necessary  to 
go  beyond  the  limits  of  his  home  circle  ;  and 
these  influences  tended  to  color  it  with  the 
same  peculiarities  of  which  we  have  spoken. 
His  mother,  his  sister,  and  his  wife — women  of 
noble  character,  genial  disposition,  and  loving 
nature  —  helped  to  impart  to  his  music  its 
peculiar  grace  and  beauty.  His  mother  first 
discovered  his  talent,  and  gave  him  his  first 
lessons,  and  in  his  boyhood  guided  his  stud- 
ies, placed  him  under  competent  teachers, 
and  accustomed  him  to  hear  the  best  music 
performed  by  the  best  musicians,  with  whom 
the  Mendelssohn  home  was  always  a  favorite 
resort.  His  sister  Fanny,  who  afterward  mar- 
ried the  painter  Hensel,  was  a  pianist  and 
composer  of  more  than  ordinary  ability.  In 


FELIX  MENDELSSOHN  BAR  THOLDY.  141 

youth  they  were  inseparable  musical  compan- 
ions. They  studied  together ;  they  composed 
together.  Like  her  brother,  she  called  about 
herself  the  best  musical  talent  in  BerHn.  In 
the  earlier  collection  of  his  songs,  many  of 
hers  appear  so  closely  similar  in  feeling  and 
color  that  they  would  be  indistinguishable  were 
no  signature  attached.    Devrient  says  :  — 

"  His  elder  sister  Fanny  stood  musically  most 
related  to  him ;  through  her  excellent  nature, 
clear  sense,  and  rich  fund  of  sensibility  (not 
perceptible  to  every  one),  many  things  were 
made  clear  to  him." 

At  the  Sunday  performances  in  the  Men- 
delssohn home,  she  and  her  brother  played  in 
trios  with  a  small  orchestra  which  was  accus- 
tomed to  assemble  there.  His  letters  con- 
stantly bear  testimony  how  eagerly  he  waited 
for  her  criticisms  upon  his  work.  Their 
musical  sympathy  was  extraordinary,  and  is 
indicated  by  their  correspondence  upon  more 
than  one  occasion  in  musical  notation.  Each 
was  possessed  of  rare  sensibility,  and  their 
musical  affinities  drew  them  together  in  a 
companionship  of  heart  and  soul  which  was 
never  disturbed  except  by  her  sudden  death. 
Devrient  thus  tells  the  sad  story  :  — 


142 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


"  In  perfect  health  and  cheerfulness  she  had 
been  presiding  at  a  vocal  rehearsal  for  the  next 
of  her  Sunday  performances  on  the  afternoon  of 
May  the  14th  (1847).  All  at  once  she  felt  her 
hands  powerless  at  the  keys,  and  was  compelled 
to  ask  a  friend  to  take  her  place  at  the  instru- 
ment. The  rehearsal  proceeded.  It  was  of  the 
choruses  of  the  *  Walpurgis  Night.'  She  was 
listening  to  them  from  an  inner  room  through 
the  open  doors,  whilst  she  was  fomenting  her 
hands  in  hot  vinegar,  '  How  beautifully  it 
sounds  !  '  she  said  joyfully.  She  thought  her- 
self restored,  and  was  on  the  point  of  returning 
to  the  music-room  when  a  second  and  total 
paralysis  struck  her ;  she  lost  consciousness, 
and  had  breathed  her  last  by  eleven  o'clock  that 
night.  .  .  .  Upon  Felix  her  loss  fell  heavier 
than  upon  any  one,  bound  up  with  her  as  he 
was  in  all  his  musical  associations  from  earhest 
childhood." 

Lampadius,  in  his  "  Life  of  Mendelssohn," 
says  of  her : — 

"This  cherished  sister,  Fanny,  had  been  the 
companion  of  the  great  musician's  pursuits  dur- 
ing the  years  of  childhood,  in  the  days  when 
they  used  to  take  five-minute  lessons  together, 
and  in  later  days  also,  when  (as  I  have  heard 
him  tell)  they  vied  with  each  other  which  could 
best  execute  a  certain  difficult  left-hand  passage 
in  Kalkbrenner's  *  Effusio  Musica.'  Had  Ma- 
dame Hensel  been  a  poor  man's  daughter,  she 


FELIX  MENDELSSOHN  BAR  THOLD V.  143 

must  have  become  known  to  the  world  by  the 
side  of  Madame  Schumann  and  Madame  Pleyel, 
as  a  female  pianist  of  the  very  highest  class. 
Like  her  brother,  she  had  in  her  composition  a 
touch  of  that  Southern  vivacity  which  is  so  rare 
among  the  Germans.  More  feminine  than  his, 
her  playing  bore  a  strong  family  resemblance  to 
her  brother's  in  its  fire,  neatness,  and  solidity. 
Like  himself,  too,  she  was  as  generally  accom- 
plished as  she  was  specially  gifted." 

He  never  entirely  recovered  from  the  shock 
of  her  death.  He  secluded  himself  almost 
entirely  within  the  family  circle,  and  always 
seemed  to  be  living  in  the  presentiment  of  his 
own  speedy  departure.  The  last  time  that  he 
had  parted  from  her,  she  reproached  him  for 
not  spending  her  birthday  (November  8)  with 
her.  He  rephed,  Depend  upon  it,  the  next 
I  shall  spend  with  you."  Fanny  died  May  14, 
1847.  He  died  November  4,  the  same  year, 
and  was  with  her  upon  her  birthday.  The 
influence  of  such  a  woman,  bound  to  him 
by  such  strong  ties  of  affection  and  such 
rare  musical  sympathy,  cannot  even  be  es- 
timated. When  she  died,  his  hold  upon 
music  was  gone.  A  few  brief  months,  and 
they  listened  together  to  the  music  of  a 
higher  world,  companions  no  more  to  be 
separated. 


144  IVOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 

Mendelssohn's  own  home  was  full  of  the 
sunshine  which  had  always  illuminated  his 
charmed  life.  Though  a  great  favorite  with 
women,  and  sought  after  by  many,  he  had 
never  contemplated  marriage  until  the  death  of 
his  father.  The  latter  had  always  been  anxious 
that  his  son  should  marry  happily,  and  thus 
have  the  influences  of  a  pleasant  home  sur- 
rounding him,  and  affecting  his  music.  Only  a 
few  days  after  the  funeral,  knowing  his  father's 
wishes,  he  told  his  sister  Fanny  that  he  was 
resolved  to  marry.  The  event  came  speedily. 
In  the  summer  of  1836  he  was  in  Frankfort, 
conducting  the  Cecilia  Society,  and  giving  his 
"  St.  Paul  "  and  some  of  the  works  of  Handel. 
During  his  stay  he  had  been  introduced  to  the 
family  of  Madame  Jeanrenaud,  the  widow  of  a 
minister  of  the  French  Reformed  Church  in 
that  city.  She  was  living  with  her  children 
in  her  parents'  home.  The  oldest  daughter, 
Cecilia,  at  once  attracted  him.  Devrient  de- 
scribes her  as  follows  :  — 

"  Cecilia  was  one  of  those  sweet,  womanly 
natures,  whose  gentle  simplicity,  whose  mere 
presence,  soothed  and  pleased.  She  was  slight, 
with  features  of  striking  beauty  and  delicacy. 
Her  hail*  was  between  brown  and  gold  ;  but  the 
transcendent  lustre  of  her  great  blue  eyes  and 
the  brilliant  roses  of  her  cheeks  were  sad  har- 


FELIX  MENDELSSOHN  BAR  THOLD Y,  145 


bingers  of  early  death.  She  spoke  little,  and 
never  with  animation,  in  a  low,  soft  voice.  The 
friends  of  Felix  had  every  reason  to  hope  that 
his  choice  would  secure  repose  to  his  restless 
spirit,  and  happy  leisure  for  thought  and  work 
in  his  home." 

And  this  was  so,  for  never  was  there  a  hap- 
pier home.  The  enthusiastic  Ehse  Polko  says 
of  her :  — 

"Cecilia  Jeanrenaud,  whose  mother  belonged 
to  a  distinguished  emigrant  family,  was  at  that 
period  considered  one  of  the  most  beautiful  girls 
in  Frankfort,  always  so  rich  in  female  charms, 
where  indeed  to  this  day,  as  in  Saxony,  'fair 
maidens  grow  on  every  tree  ; '  and  when  I  now 
recall  her  image  as  I  first  saw  her,  though  some 
time  after  her  marriage,  I  feel  that  to  this  present 
hour  she  has  always  remained  my  beau  ideal  of 
womanly  fascination  and  loveliness.  Her  figure 
was  slight,  of  middle  height,  and  rather  droop- 
ing, like  a  flower  heavy  with  dew  ;  her  luxuriant 
golden-brown  hair  fell  in  rich  curls  on  her  shoul- 
ders ;  her  complexion  was  of  transparent  delicacy, 
her  smile  charming;  and  she  had  the  most  be- 
witching deep-blue  eyes  I  ever  beheld,  with  dark 
eyelashes  and  eyebrows." 

Such  was  the  fair  vision  that  presented  itself 
to  Mendelssohn  during  his  visits,  which  became 
more  and  more  frequent  and  quickly  resulted 
in  betrothal  and  marriage.     Of  their  court- 
10 


146 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


ship,  Hiller,  in  his  delightful  "Reminiscences," 
says :  — 

"  His  visits  became  more  and  more  frequent, 
but  he  always  behaved  with  such  reserve  towards 
his  chosen  one,  that,  as  she  once  laughingly  told 
me,  in  her  husband's  presence,  for  several  weeks 
she  did  not  imagine  herself  to  be  the  cause  of 
Mendelssohn's  visits,  but  thought  he  came  for  the 
sake  of  her  mother,  who,  indeed,  with  her  youthful 
vivacity,  cleverness  and  refinement,  chattering 
away  in  the  purest  Frankfort  dialect,  was  ex- 
tremely attractive.  But  though  during  this  early 
time  Felix  spoke  but  little  to  Cecilia,  when  away 
from  her  he  talked  of  her  all  the  more.  Lying 
on  the  sofa  in  my  room  after  dinner,  or  taking 
long  walks  in  the  mild  summer  nights  with  Dr. 
S.  and  myself,  he  would  rave  about  her  charm, 
her  grace,  and  her  beauty.  There  was  nothing 
overstrained  in  him,  either  in  his  life  or  in  his 
art.  He  would  pour  out  his  heart  about  her  in 
the  most  charmingly  frank  and  artless  way,  often 
full  of  fun  and  gayety  ;  then  again  with  deep  feel- 
ing, but  never  with  any  exaggerated  sentimen- 
tahty  or  uncontrolled  passion.  It  was  easy  to 
see  what  a  serious  thing  it  was  ;  for  one  could 
hardly  get  him  to  talk  of  anything  which  did  not 
touch  upon  her  more  or  less." 

Their  intercourse  was  one  of  the  purest 
love.  Their  home  was  always  a  happy  one, 
and  the  centre  of  attraction  for  all  the  great 
artists  of  his  time.    She  was  a  good  singer, 


FELIX  MENDELSSOHN  BAR  THOLD  V.  147 

was  possessed  of  more  than  ordinary  musical 
intelligence,  sympathized  with  and  encouraged 
him  in  his  work,  and  rejoiced  in  his  triumphs. 
She  understood  him,  and  she  prized  him  at 
his  real  value.  Slight  as  she  was  in  physique, 
and  calm  and  gentle  as  she  was  in  her  bearing, 
her  spirit  was  more  heroic  than  his.  In  all 
other  regards  she  was  his  complement.  She 
cared  for  him  until  his  last  moment,  and  strong 
in  her  very  tenderness  accepted  his  death 
with  resignation  and  heroism.  Of  the  funeral 
Devrient  says,  — 

"When  the  church  was  almost  deserted,  a 
female  form  in  deep  mourning  was  led  to  the 
bier.  She  sank  down  beside  it,  and  remained 
long  in  prayer.  It  was  Cecilia,  taking  her  last 
farewell  of  the  earthly  remains  of  Felix.  She 
knew  that  she  would  not  long  survive  him." 

She  lived  but  five  years  longer,  and  those 
years  were  lovingly  and  faithfully  devoted  to 
the  care  and  education  of  his  children.  Then 
she  passed  quietly  away,  and,  like  her  illustri- 
ous husband,  was  buried  with  imposing  musi- 
cal ceremonies. 

The  influences  of  mother,  sister,  and  wife, 
all  led  Mendelssohn  in  the  same  direction  of 
beauty  and  grace  of  style,  rather  than  of  great 
strength.    His  life  never  knew  but  one  pang. 


148  WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


and  that  was  the  last  one.  It  was  never 
clouded  by  any  sorrows  except  such  as  are 
the  common  lot ;  and  for  these  he  had  not 
the  common  endurance.  It  was  a  life  without 
regrets  and  without  reproach,  and  therefore  a 
life  without  great  moments  or  great  struggles 
that  call  out  the  deepest  and  best  that  is  in 
human  effort.  He  imparted  to  his  music  his 
own  elegance  and  grace  ;  and  it  reflects  also 
the  gentleness,  the  sweetness,  the  loveliness, 
and  the  beauty  of  mother,  sister,  and  wife. 


FREDERICK  CHOPIN. 


Chopin  died  slowly,  consuming  himself  in  the 
flames  of  his  own  genius.  ...  He  was  a  poet  of  a 
mournful  soul,  full  of  reserve  and  complicated  mys- 
tery, and  familiar  with  the  stern  face  of  sorrow.  He 
constantly  reminded  us  of  a  convolvulus  balancing 
its  heaven-colored  cup  on  an  incredibly  slight  stem, 
the  tissue  of  which  is  so  like  vapor  that  the  slightest 
contact  wounds  and  tears  the  misty  corolla. —  Liszt. 

HE  very  name  of  Chopin  suggests 
the  name  of  woman,  and  of  one 
woman  more  than  any  other,  — 
George  Sand.  Liszt  says  his  music  is  cannons 
buried  in  flowers.  He  himself  was  buried 
beneath  an  exterior  of  elegant  hauteur  and 
graceful  courtesy,  and  no  one  ever  penetrated 
to  his  inner  self  but  the  woman  who  was  at 
once  his  good  and  evil  genius.  Under  this 
goodly  exterior  was  an  imagination  of  exquisite 


150  WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 

fineness  and  power  ;  feelings,  though  pent  up, 
that  raged  at  times  like  a  volcano  ;  a  physical 
constitution  enervated  and  undermined  by 
disease  ;  a  pride  so  sensitive  and  so  secretive 
that  it  allowed  but  one  to  intrude  upon  him 
or  to  peer  into  his  inner  life ;  a  dread  of 
human  contact,  not  from  hatred  of  men,  but 
from  the  very  fineness  of  his  organization, 
that  made  him  a  stranger  even  among  his 
friends.  Such  conflicting  qualities  of  mind 
and  body  marked  him  out  for  suffering ;  but 
his  suffering  was  concealed,  as  well  as  the 
real  character  of  his  life. 

There  is  scarcely  an  event  of  Chopin's  life, 
scarcely  a  phase  of  his  passion  or  his  tempera- 
ment, hardly  a  phrase  of  his  music,  that  is  not 
related  to  woman.  It  was  in  his  Paris  salon, 
surrounded  by  lovely  women,  that  he  impro- 
vised so  enchantingly.  Almost  every  piece 
he  has  written  was  inspired  of  woman,  and  is 
dedicated  to  her.  The  finest  interpreters  of 
his  music  have  been  women.  It  was  Clara 
Schumann  who  first  really  made  Germany 
acquainted  with  it,  as  it  was  Robert  Schumann 
who  first  proclaimed  his  genius  in  a  critical 
manner.  His  passion  itself  was  peculiarly 
feminine,  as  appears  very  clearly  from  his 
relations  to  George  Sand.    A  woman's  voice 


FREDERICK  CHOPIN.  151 

was  the  last  sound  he  heard,  as  she  sang  in 
his  dying  chamber. 

There  are  but  two  sources  to  which  we  can 
go  for  information  that  is  authoritative  as  to 
the  events  of  Chopin's  life,  and  that  bears 
directly  upon  the  subject  of  woman's  influ- 
ence, —  Liszt's  so-called  biography,  which  is 
in  the  nature  of  a  rhapsody ;  and  the  biog- 
raphy recently  written  by  M.  Karasowsky, 
which  may  be  considered  reliable,  though  in 
some  parts  highly  colored. 

Liszt  has  drawn  a  fascinating  picture  of  his 
earlier  attachments,  especially  his  love  for  a 
young  lady  who  never  ceased  to  feel  a  rev- 
erential homage  for  him,"  but  was  lost  to  him 
by  the  more  intense  and  fatal  passion  which 
George  Sand  kindled.    Liszt  says  :  — 

"  This  young  Polish  lady,  unfortunately  sep- 
arated from  Chopin,  remained  faithful  to  his 
memory,  to  all  that  was  left  of  him.  She  devoted 
herself  to  his  parents.  The  father  of  Chopin 
would  never  suffer  the  portrait  which  she  had 
drawn  of  him  in  the  days  of  hope  to  be  replaced 
by  another,  done  by  the  hands  of  afar  more  skilful 
artist.  We  saw  the  pale  cheeks  of  this  melan- 
choly woman  glow  like  alabaster  when  a  light 
shines  through  its  snow,  many  years  afterward, 
when,  in  gazing  upon  this  picture,  she  met  the 
eyes  of  his  father." 


152  WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 

At  the  house  of  the  Princess  Czetwertynska 
in  Warsaw,  a  lady  who  was  a  passionate 
admirer  of  music,  and  who  appreciated  his 
playing  and  his  talent  of  composition,  he  met 
with  a  group  of  young  and  noble  ladies, — 
among  them  the  Princess  of  Lowicz,  the 
Countess  Zamoyska,  the  Princess  Radizwill, 
the  Princess  Jablonowska,  and  others,  —  who 
exercised  a  powerful  influence  upon  him. 
Liszt  bears  testimony  to  this  influence  in  the 
following  glowing  words  :  — 

"As  these  visions  of  his  youth  deepened  in 
the  long  perspective  of  memories,  they  gained 
in  grace,  in  charm,  in  delight  in  his  eyes,  fasci- 
nating him  to  such  an  extent  that  no  reality 
could  destroy  their  secret  power  over  his  imagi- 
nation, rendering  his  repugnance  more  and  more 
unconquerable  to  that  license  of  allurement,  that 
brutal  tyranny  of  caprice,  that  eagerness  to  drink 
the  cup  of  fantasy  to  the  very  dregs,  that  stormy 
pursuit  of  all  the  changes  and  incongruities  of 
life,  which  rule  in  the  strange  mode  of  life  known 
as  La  BohhneP 

In  1830,  at  Nice,  he  met  three  beautiful  and 
accompHshed  Polish  ladies,  Marie,  Nathalie, 
and  Delphine,  daughters  of  Count  Comar. 
They  subsequently  married  wealthy  noblemen  ; 
and  in  their  elegant  Paris  salons  Chopin  was  a 
frequent  visitor,  and  the  centre  of  admiration 


FREDERICK  CHOPIN.  153 

and  attraction.  Their  friendship  for  him  was 
enthusiastic  and  lasting,  and  helped  to  in- 
spire him  to  loftier  effort  than  ever  before ; 
and  one  of  them,  Delphine,  then  the  Countess 
Potocka,  was  with  him  in  his  dying  moments, 
sustaining  and  glorifying  them  with  her  lovely 
voice. 

His  connection  with  George  Sand  cannot 
be  called  an  episode.  From  the  moment  that 
he  felt  the  weird  fascination  of  this  enchantress, 
he  was  completely  in  her  power.  She  ruled 
his  Hfe.  She  changed  its  currents,  directed 
its  purposes,  controlled  its  destiny,  absorbed 
his  very  existence,  until,  in  a  fatal  moment,  he 
asked  what  it  was  impossible  for  her  to  grant ; 
and  then  she  left  him,  as  one  writer  coolly 
says,  "to  his  cough  and  his  piano." 

It  were  a  difficult  task  to  analyze  the  strange 
relations  between  George  Sand  and  Chopin, 
because  the  two  natures  had  little  in  common. 
The  one  was  prosaic,  virile,  coarse,  and  un- 
conventional ;  the  other  was  poetical,  feminine, 
delicate,  and  sensitive.  They  were  alHed  in 
the  possession  of  genius  and  in  the  recogni- 
tion of  what  was  beautiful ;  beyond  this  they 
touched  at  no  point.  The  narratives  of  Liszt 
and  Karasowski,  so  far  as  they  cover  this 
period  of  his  life,  though  differing  in  view,  for 


154  IVOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


Liszt  himself  had  felt  the  influence  of  George 
Sand,  are  extremely  interesting.  Liszt  draws 
an  attractive  picture  of  the  coterie  of  poets 
and  artists  who  were  wont  to  assemble  in 
Chopin's  salon,  among  w^hom  not  one  more 
clearly  recognized  his  genius  than  George 
Sand.  "  After  having  named  Madame  Sand, 
whose  energetic  personality  and  electric  genius 
inspired  the  frail  and  dehcate  organization  of 
Chopin  with  an  intensity  of  admiration  which 
consumed  him,  as  a  wine  too  spirituous  shat- 
ters the  fragile  vase,  we  cannot  now  call  up 
other  names  from  the  dim  limbus  of  the 
past,"  says  Liszt.  She  was  naturally  anxious 
to  establish  a  friendship  with  Chopin,  for  she 
shared  with  him  his  intense  admiration  of  the 
beautiful ;  but  he  at  first  shrank  from  her,  for 
his  melancholy,  sensitiveness,  exclusiveness, 
tenderness,  ideality,  and  sincere  religious  feel- 
ing were  all  repulsed  by  her  boldness,  energy, 
unconventionality,  and  masculine  nature  :  but 
the  acquaintance  which  she  forced  upon  him 
at  last  dissipated  all  his  fears  ;  and,  as  might 
be  expected  of  such  a  nature,  once  devoted 
to  an  object,  he  concentrated  himself  with  all 
the  strength  of  that  nature  upon  it,  and  was 
utterly  absorbed  by  his  ideal.  Henceforth 
George  Sand  was  to  him  a  fatal  necessity. 


FREDERICK  CHOPIN. 


In  1836  his  health  began  to  decline.  A 
year  later  he  was  seized  with  a  dangerous  ill- 
ness, and  was  advised  to  go  South,  where  he 
would  have  the  benefit  of  a  balmier  climate. 
He  selected  the  island  of  Majorca,  and  Ma- 
dame Sand  accompanied  him.  Under  her 
care  and  the  influences  of  the  climate  he  im- 
proved. "  He  breathed  there  that  air,"  says 
Liszt,  "for  which  natures  unsuited  for  the 
world,  and  never  feeling  themselves  happy  in 
it,  long  with  such  a  painful  homesickness." 
She  herself  says  :  — 

The  funereal  oppression  which  secretly  un- 
dermined the  spirit  of  Chopin,  destroying  and 
corroding  all  contentment,  gradually  vanished. 
He  permitted  the  amiable  character,  the  cheer- 
ful serenity  of  his  friend,  to  chase  sad  thoughts 
and  mournful  presentiments  away,  and  to  breathe 
new  force  into  his  intellectual  being." 

For  a  time  Chopin  was  happy,  and  Madame 
Sand  was  his  inspiration.  In  her  "  Lucrezia 
Floriani,"  where  he  figures  as  Prince  Karol, 
she  says  :  — 

"He  was  no  longer  upon  the  earth,  he  was  in 
an  empyrean  of  golden  clouds  and  perfumes  ; 
his  imagination,  so  full  of  exquisite  beauty, 
seemed  engaged  in  a  monologue  with  God  him- 
self; and  if,  upon  the  radiant  prism  in  whose 


15^  WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


contemplation  he  forgot  all  else,  the  magic  lan- 
tern of  the  outer  world  would  ever  cast  its 
disturbing  shadow,  he  felt  deeply  pained." 

The  dream,  however,  was  suddenly  dissi- 
pated. Liszt  does  not  tell  the  cause,  but  it  is 
well  known.  He  desired  her  to  marry  him. 
His  nature  was  all  love.  Love  was  his  life. 
Madame  Sand  says  :  — 

"  He  loved  for  the  sake  of  loving.  No  amount 
of  suffering  was  sufficient  to  discourage  him.  He 
could  enter  upon  a  new  phase,  that  of  woe  ;  but 
the  phase  of  coldness  he  could  never  arrive  at." 

To  transform  a  passionate  friendship  into  a 
pure  love  was  an  impossible  thing  for  her. 
They  separated,  and  that  separation  strained 
and  rent  every  cord  that  bound  him  to  hfe. 
As  Liszt  says,  — 

"  His  last  pleasure  seemed  to  be  the  memory 
of  the  blasting  of  his  last  hope  ;  he  treasured 
the  bitter  knowledge  that  under  this  fatal  spell 
his  life  was  ebbing  fast  away.  He  seemed  to 
inhale  the  poison  rapidly  and  eagerly,  that  he 
might  thus  shorten  the  time  in  which  he  would 
be  forced  to  breathe  it.  Only  a  short  time  be- 
fore he  died,  he  wrote  to  a  Polish  friend  :  '  It  is 
the  end.  I  am  only  vegetating,  and  awaiting  the 
last  of  it.  I  have  never  cursed  any  one,  but  now 
I  am  so  worn  and  weary  of  life  that  I  am  now 


FREDERICK  CHOPIN.  157 

ready  to  curse  that  Lucrezia.  But  she  suffers  as 
well :  ill-fortune  devours  her  daily.'  " 

M.  Karasowski's  version  differs  somewhat 
from  that  of  Liszt.  According  to  the  later 
biographer,  chance  brought  him  to  Paris,  and 
face  to  face  with  the  woman  who  from  that 
moment  cast  a  dark  and  fatal  shadow  upon 
his  life.  One  rainy  day,  in  a  fit  of  despon- 
dency, he  travelled  about  the  streets  of  Paris ; 
and  suddenly,  remembering  it  was  reception- 
day  at  a  house  where  he  was  always  a  welcome 
guest,  he  turned  his  steps  thither.  As  he 
mounted  the  stairs  he  fancied  he  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  shadow  from  which  there  came  a 
strong  perfume  of  violets  (his  favorite  flowers). 
He  was  about  to  retrace  his  steps,  as  if  it  were 
an  ill-omen ;  but,  smiling  at  his  fears,  entered 
the  salon.  He  took  his  seat  in  a  corner  aside 
from  the  company,  preferring  to  listen  and  be 
a  spectator ;  but  upon  being  pressed  to  play, 
he  went  to  the  piano  and  improvised.  As 
he  finished  he  became  aware  that  a  plainly 
dressed  woman,  leaning  upon  the  other  end 
of  the  piano,  was  gazing  at  him  with  a  bold- 
ness and  intensity  that  made  him  redden.  A 
few  minutes  later  she  was  introduced  to  him 
by  Liszt  as  George  Sand.  His  first  feeling 
was  aversion.    In  writing  home  about  her,  he 


158  WOMAN  IN  MUSIC 

says  her  features  are  coarse,  and  her  voice 
harsh  and  masculine.  She  glowingly  praised 
his  playing,  and  each  time  she  met  him  cun- 
ningly flattered  him,  until  at  last  he  was  madly 
in  love  with  her.  Karasowski's  narrative  of 
their  Hfe  in  Majorca  does  not  agree  with 
Liszt's.  According  to  the  former,  he  was 
thoroughly  uncomfortable  and  unhappy  dur- 
ing the  stay,  and  returned  to  Paris  worse  off 
in  health  than  when  he  left.  As  his  health 
declined,  Madame  Sand's  passion  for  him 
cooled;  and  at  last  she  found  an  occasion 
to  quarrel  with  him,  and  he  left  her,  vowing 
never  to  return.  Some  time  after  he  met  her 
at  a  friend's  house.  She  held  out  her  hand, 
and  softly  said  "  Frederick,"  as  if  she  would 
be  reconciled,  but  he  turned  away  from  her 
without  recognition. 

Sainte-Beuve  has  perhaps  given  the  most 
reasonable  explanation  of  the  rupture  between 
them.  She  felt  a  man's  passion  towards  him, 
he  felt  a  woman's  love  towards  her ;  she  was 
a  woman  of  masculine  nature,  he  was  a  man 
of  feminine  nature.  When  he  proposed  mar- 
riage her  passion  cooled,  and  she  was  ready 
to  leave  him  as  she  had  left  others.  His 
nature,  being  feminine,  imposed  upon  him  the 
female  torture  of  endurance.     Her  attach- 


FREDERICK  CHOPIN. 


ment  was  in  one  sense  a  coarse  one,  to  be 
ended  at  any  moment  by  caprice  or  whim ; 
his  was  an  absorption  profound  and  unalter- 
able :  he  was  not  necessary  to  her ;  she  was 
necessary  to  him.  It  was  a  union  of  two  na- 
tures with  nothing  in  common,  —  most  fatal 
of  all  mistakes.  The  cruelty  of  this  relation 
was  the  first  fascination  ;  a  grotesque  and  un- 
necessary episode  of  it  was  the  manner  in 
which  she  has  drawn  his  picture  in  the  least 
attractive  of  all  her  works,  "  Lucrezia  Flori- 
ani ; "  the  hopelessness  of  it  was  her  refusal 
to  marry,  —  a  shock  which  his  sensitive,  affec- 
tionate nature  could  not  sustain;  then  fol- 
lowed the  natural  results  to  such  a  nature, — 
decline,  despair,  death. 

His  last  hours  were  consoled  and  comforted 
by  a  tender,  lo\'ing  woman,  who  had  been  his 
friend  and  admirer  before  he  came  under  the 
fatal  influence  of  George  Sand.  Liszt  touch- 
ingly  and  beautifully  describes  the  scene  :  — 

"On  Sunday,  the  15th  of  October  (1849),  his 
attacks  were  more  violent  and  frequent,  lasting 
for  several  hours  in  succession.  He  endured 
them  with  patience  and  great  strength  of  mind. 
The  Countess  Delphine  Potocka,  who  was  pres- 
ent, was  much  distressed  ;  her  tears  were  flow- 
ing fast,  when  he  observed  her  standing  at  the 
foot  of  his  bed,  tall,  slight,  draped  in  white. 


l6o  WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


resembling  the  beautiful  angels  created  by  the 
imagination  of  the  most  devout  among  the 
painters.  Without  doubt  he  supposed  her  to  be 
a  celestial  apparition  ;  and  when  the  crisis  left 
him  a  moment  in  repose,  he  requested  her  to 
sing.  They  deemed  him  at  first  seized  with 
delirium,  but  he  eagerly  repeated  his  request. 
Who  could  have  ventured  to  oppose  his  wish  ? 
The  piano  was  rolled  from  his  parlor  to  the  door 
of  his  chamber,  while,  with  sobs  in  her  voice 
and  tears  streaming  down  her  cheeks,  his  gifted 
countrywoman  sang.  Certainly  this  delightful 
voice  had  never  before  attained  an  expression 
so  full  of  profound  pathos.  He  seemed  to  suffer 
less  as  he  listened.  She  sang  that  famous  can- 
ticle to  the  Virgin  which,  it  is  said,  once  saved 
the  life  of  Stradella.  '  How  beautiful  it  is  !'  he 
exclaimed.  '  My  God,  how  very  beautiful ! 
Again  —  again!'  Though  overwhelmed  with 
emotion,  the  Countess  had  the  noble  courage  to 
comply  with  the  last  wish  of  her  friend,  a  com- 
patriot ;  she  again  took  a  seat  at  the  piano, 
and  sang  a  hymn  from  Marcello.  .  .  .  The 
sacred  silence  was  only  broken  by  the  voice  of 
the  Countess  floating  like  a  melody  from  heaven, 
above  the  sighs  and  sobs  which  formed  its 
heavy  and  mournful  earth-accompaniment." 

Two  days  later  he  died;  and  his  last  act 
was  in  accordance  with  the  love  and  courtesy 
which  had  always  characterized  him.  He 
bent  his  head,  and  kissed  the  hand  of  his 
friend   Gutman,  and  quietly   fell  into  the 


FREDERICK  CHOPIN. 


i6i 


dreamless  sleep,  leaving  behind  him  a  legacy  of 
music,  which,  though  small  as  compared  with 
the  works  of  other  composers  whom  we  have 
considered,  is  of  imperishable  beauty,  and 
bears  trace  on  every  page  of  woman's  love 
and  influence,  —  trace,  too,  of  woman's  fatal 
spell,  darkening  and  destroying. 


i  I 


CARL  MARIA  VON  WEBER. 


May  God  still  grant  me  the  blessing  which  he  has 
hitherto  so  graciously  accorded  me,  that  I  may  have 
the  power  to  make  the  dear  one  happy,  and,  as  a 
brave  artist,  bring  honor  and  advantage  to  my  father- 
land !    Amen  !  —  Weber's  Diary. 

RIDOLIN  VON  WEBER,  steward 
to  the  noble  family  of  Schonau- 
Zella,  grandfather  of  the  composer 
of  Der  Freischiitz,"  had  two  sons.  The 
elder  became  the  father  of  Constance,  the 
wife  of  Mozart ;  the  younger,  Franz  Anton, 
the  father  of  Carl  Maria ;  so  that  the  two 
eminent  composers  were  cousins  by  mar- 
riage. Franz  Anton's  first  wife  was  Maria 
Anna  von  Fumetti,  daughter  of  the  Court 
Financial  Counsellor  at  Cologne,  who  died  in 
1783,  worn  out  with  the  vagaries,  eccentri- 
cities, and  dissipations  of  her  husband,  who 
was  a  member  of  a  strolling  company  of 


CARL  MARIA  VON  WEBER.  163 

comedians.  Two  years  afterward,  being  then 
in  his  fiftieth  year,  he  married  Genofeva  von 
Brenner,  a  pretty  girl  of  sixteen,  who  was 
destined  to  become  the  mother  of  Carl  Maria. 
For  years  the  child  was  carried  by  his  patient, 
suffering  mother  in  the  company  of  the  stroll- 
ing comedians,  surrounded  by  the  worst  of 
influences,  and  cared  for,  trained,  and  edu- 
cated by  her  alone,  until  at  last  her  health 
was  shattered,  and  she  fell  into  a  decline. 
She  died  in  1798,  and  Franz  Anton's  sister 
Adelheid  took  the  boy  under  her  protection. 
She  was  a  maiden  lady  of  excellent  judgment 
and  kindly  heart,  and  filled  the  mother's  part 
in  shielding  him  from  the  contaminations  all 
about  him,  besides  superintending  his  edu- 
cation. The  influence  of  these  two  women 
upon  the  future  of  the  child  placed  under 
such  unfavorable  circumstances  was  powerful 
for  good,  and  unquestionably  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  his  future  fame. 

In  his  eighteenth  year  Carl  Maria,  then 
earning  a  precarious  living  by  teaching,  made 
the  acquaintance  of  Fraulein  von  Belonde, 
maid  of  honor  to  the  Duchess  Louise  of 
Wiirtemberg,  wife  of  Prince  Eugene  Fried- 
rich,  resident  at  Carlsruhe.  She  is  described 
as  an  admirable  piano-forte  player.  Impressed 


1 64  WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 

with  the  beauty  of  Weber's  improvising,  and 
sympathizing  with  his  unfortunate  circum- 
stances, she  became  much  interested  in  him 
and  determined  to  aid  him,  and  succeeded  so 
well  that  she  secured  for  him  the  position  of 
musical  director  to  the  Prince,  who  not  only 
took  Weber  himself,  but  liis  old  worthless 
father  and  his  good  aunt  Adelheid  into  his 
own  house  and  kindly  cared  for  them.  Their 
stay,  however,  was  not  of  long  duration.  The 
tide  of  war  broke  up  their  asylum.  Weber 
drifted  about  for  some  time,  almost  hopelessly 
in  debt  and  drowning  his  troubles  in  excesses 
of  dissipation,  until  in  1807  he  found  himself 
in  the  service  of  Prince  Ludwig  and  his  wife, 
a  princess  of  Nassau- Weilburg.  He  was  in- 
trusted with  the  musical  education  of  their 
children ;  and,  says  his  son  in  his  excellent 
biography,  "to  this  new  position  of  the 
young  composer  are  probably  owing  not  only 
the  '  six  pieces  a  quatre  mains '  dedicated  to 
the  Princess  Ludwig,  but  many  others  of  his 
brilliant  instrumental  works  belonging  to  this 
period."  It  was  about  this  time  that  he  wrote 
his  opera  "  Sylvana  "  for  King  Friedrich's  the- 
atre, —  an  event  which  played  an  important 
part  in  his  hfe,  as  it  brought  him  in  contact 
with  Gretchen  Lang,  one  of  the  singers, — 


CARL  MARIA  VON  WEBER.  165 


"  the  charming,  winning,  coquettish  Httle  ser- 
pent," with  whom  he  became  speedily  fasci- 
nated.   His  biographer  says  :  — 

"  She  became  the  central  point  of  all  his  life 
and  aspirations.  There  is  no  evidence  to  show 
to  what  degree  of  intimacy  this  union  of  the  two 
young  fiery  artist-natures  was  carried.  It  is 
certain,  however,  that  from  the  time  Carl  Maria 
made  Gretchen  Lang's  acquaintance,  he  seldom 
quitted  her  side." 

It  was  an  unfortunate  attachment  in  every 
way.  It  brought  down  upon  him  the  dis- 
pleasure of  his  patron,  secured  for  him  the 
enmity  of  the  King,  and  plunged  him  deeply 
into  debt.  Creditors  pursued  him,  and  at  last 
he  was  sent  to  the  debtors'  prison.  To  crown 
his  misfortunes  came  an  order  from  the  King 
that  he  should  be  transported  beyond  the 
boundaries  of  Wiirtemberg.  In  Frankfort  he 
subsequently  met  Gretchen  again,  but  her 
passion  for  him  had  cooled.  He  sought  in 
vain  to  renew  the  old  relations.  They  spent 
their  last  evening  together  at  a  concert,  and 
in  this  moment  of  adieu  to  her  he  had  loved 
so  passionately  he  saw  for  the  first  time  the  one 
who  was  destined  to  be  his  wife.  This  was 
Caroline  Brandt,  who  was  the  solo  singer  on 
the  occasion.    A  few  days  later  his  opera 


1 66  WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 

"  Sylvana  "  was  put  in  rehearsal.  Gretchen 
was  engaged  at  the  theatre,  but  she  refused 
to  sing.  The  title  role  was  given  to  Caroline 
Brandt,  and  it  was  due  mainly  to  her  efforts 
that  the  opera  was  successful.  The  composer 
was  loudly  called  for  at  the  close,  and  Caroline 
led  him  forward  to  receive  the  applause  of  the 
people.    As  his  son  says  :  — 

"  Little  did  the  youth  then  know  that  the  hand 
which  clasped  his  was  one  day  to  be  his  own  for 
life  ;  that  from  that  hand  he  was  destined  to 
receive  his  life's  greatest  happiness." 

Many  tribulations,  however,  were  in  store  for 
Weber  before  he  reached  that  important  event 
in  his  life. 

His  prospects  meanwhile  were  brightening. 
We  next  find  him  in  Munich,  with  his  new  opera 
"  Abu  Hassan."  Its  rehearsals  brought  him  in 
contact  with  the  female  artists  and  with  a  crowd 
of  admirers  who  lavished  their  blandishments 
upon  him.  He  passed  a  gay  life  among  them  ; 
but  the  general  result  could  not  have  been 
very  favorable,  for  in  his  diary  at  this  time  he 
constantly  writes  :  All  women  are  worthless," 
"  All  are  bad  alike."  From  a  musical  point  of 
view,  however,  female  influence  added  to  his 
productivity  and  inspired  his  work.  About 
this  time  he  paid  a  visit  to  the  Bavarian  min- 


CARL  MARIA  VON  WEBER.  167 


ister  at  Jegisdorf,  and  while  there  wrote  his 
brilliant  scena  and  aria  from  Athahe,"  for  the 
singer  Frau  Peyermann,  an  inmate  of  the 
house,  to  whose  charms  Weber  was  peculiarly 
susceptible.  Had  his  visit  been  a  prolonged 
one,  the  destiny  of  Caroline  Brandt  might 
have  been  disturbed  ;  for  his  next  work  for  the 
singer  was  the  "  Kunsder's  Liebesforderung  " 
("  The  Artist's  Declaration  of  Love  "),  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  of  all  his  songs.  Weber 
next  appears  in  Prague  as  opera-director,  busy 
with  the  rehearsals  of  Spontini's  "  Cortez." 
In  the  troupe  was  a  dancer  named  Brunetti, 
who  had  been  married  for  many  years  to  a 
woman  who  had  risen  from  the  ballet  to  light 
operatic  roles.    Weber's  son  says  of  her  :  — 

"  She  was  the  mother  of  several  children,  but 
still  possessed  a  considerable  charm  in  her  fine, 
plump  figure,  and  her  beautiful  blue  eyes.  She 
was  as  full  of  the  absurdest  tricks  and  caprices 
as  she  was  lively  and  impetuous  in  tempera- 
ment ;  and  that  her  reputation  of  being  a  mis- 
tress of  all  the  finest  arts  of  coquetry  did  not 
belie  her,  Weber  had  soon  to  learn  to  his 
cost.  Thdr^se  Brunetti  was  fond  of  attending 
the  operatic  rehearsals,  even  when  not  her- 
self employed.  On  these  occasions  Weber  was 
frequently  thrown  in  her  way ;  and  he  soon 
conceived  for  the  handsome,  seductive  woman 


i68 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


a  passion  which  seemed  to  have  deprived  his 
otherwise  clear  mind  of  all  common  sense  and 
reason,  and  which  neither  the  flood  of  adminis- 
trative affairs  nor  the  cold  breath  of  duty  could 
extinguish.  Vain  were  all  his  efforts  to  conceal 
it.  In  a  very  short  time  it  became  the  topic 
of  general  remark  ;  excited  the  ridicule  or  grave 
anxieties  of  his  friends  ;*  involved  him  in  a 
thousand  disagreeable  positions  ;  robbed  him  of 
the  most  precious  treasures  of  a  heart  rich  in 
love;  lowered  his  moral  character,  without  the 
slightest  compensating  advantage  to  his  artistic 
career ;  and  wellnigh  dragged  him  down  into 
an  abyss  beyond  hope  of  rescue." 

There  is  no  doubt  that  Weber  was  thor- 
oughly infatuated  wath  this  woman,  and  there 
is  equally  no  doubt  that  she  led  him  a  life  of 
torment.  His  diary  is  full  of  his  troubles 
growing  out  of  this  relation,  and  lamentations 
over  her  unworthiness  and  his  own  folly ;  but 
still  she  kept  him  in  slavery  to  her  charms. 
His  deliverance,  however,  was  near  at  hand. 
Caroline  Brandt  arrived  in  Prague,  and  on 
the  ist  of  January,  1814,  appeared  on  the 
stage  under  Weber's  direction.  I  take  the 
story  of  her  debut  and  what  followed  from  his 
son's  biography :  — 

"  Caroline  Brandt  was  small  and  plump  in 
figure,  with  beautiful,  expressive  gray  eyes  and 
fair  wavy  hair,  and  a  peculiar  liveliness  in  all 


CARL  MARIA  VON  WEBER.  169 


her  movements.  Her  first  appearance  on  the 
stage  at  Prague  at  once  decided  her  position  in 
that  capital. 

*'The  honor  of  a  recall  before  the  curtain  — 
an  honor  in  those  days  seldom  bestowed  —  was 
awarded  to  her ;  and  from  the  first,  many  of 
her  competitors,  among  whom  was  naturally 
Therese  Brunetti,  began  to  look  on  her  askance. 
This  feeling  of  jealousy  was  soon  increased. 
When  introduced  by  Weber  into  the  houses  of 
Count  Colowrat,  Prince  Lobkowitz,  and  others 
of  the  first  families  of  Prague,  she  was  welcomed 
there  with  the  distinction  due  not  only  to  her 
great  artistic  merits  and  her  innate  charms, 
but  to  the  purity  and  worth  of  her  moral  charac- 
ter. Weber  was  thus  thrown  greatly  in  her  com- 
pany. He  could  not  but  feel  the  magic  power 
of  so  fascinating  a  woman  ;  he  could  not  but 
draw  comparisons,  little  by  little.,  between  the 
worthless  object  of  his  passion,  —  to  whom,  by 
a  strange  coincidence,  Caroline  Brandt  bore  a 
vague  resemblance  in  fresher,  younger  form, — 
and  this  pure,  bright,  ardess  creature.  Still, 
during  the  commencement  of  the  year  18 14  no 
traces  are  to  be  found  of  any  diminution  of  his 
passion  for  the  coquettish,  artful  Therese  Bru- 
netti. He  suffered  bitterly,  it  is  true,  from  her 
deceptions,  her  sordidness,  her  infidelities  ;  but 
his  heart  yearned  for  love,  and  clung  with  des- 
peration to  the  rotten  plank  on  which  he  had 
stored  all  his  hopes  of  requited  affection.  In 
the  months  of  Januan,-  and  February  there  still 
appear  in  his  note-book  such  remarks  as,  '  I  was 
ver)-  sad :  but  she  was  good  to  me,  and  I  was 


170 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC, 


content.'  *  I  found  Calina  with  Thdrese,  and  I 
could  scarce  conceal  the  fearful  rage  that  burned 
in  me.'  'No  joy  without  her,  and  yet  with  her 
only  sorrow  !  ' 

"  But  the  unworthy  bond  was  at  last  to  be 
broken;  and  the  release  was  effected  by  two 
comparatively  trifling  circumstances.  The  ten- 
der lover,  on  the  birthday  of  the  object  of  his 
passion,  had  prepared  for  her  a  present,  con- 
sisting of  a  gold  watch,  to  which  were  appended 
a  variety  of  trinkets,  all  chosen  with  symbolical 
reference  to  his  deep  affection.  At  the  same 
time  he  had  ordered  her  a  dish  of  oysters,  then 
a  rare  and  costly  delicacy  in  Prague.  To  the 
valuable  watch  the  fair  Therese  paid  little  heed, 
still  less  to  the  profound  meaning  of  the  sym- 
bolical trinkets.  She  flung  herself  upon  the 
oysters  with  a  gluttony  which  disgusted  the  senti- 
mental lover.  On  a  sudden  the  scales  fell  from 
his  eyes.  The  other  circumstance  was  not  per- 
haps so  trifling.  Weber  had  long  remarked,  with 
all  the  pangs  of  the  most  fearful  jealousy,  the 
marked  attentions  paid  by  Therese  to  a  certain 
Calina,  often  alluded  to  in  his  notes,  —  a  man 
of  substance.  Although  this  affair  had  become 
a  matter  of  town  talk  and  scandal,  the  infatuated 
adorer  had  still  followed  in  the  train  of  the  de- 
lusive woman,  until  she  herself  announced  to 
him,  with  the  utmost  coolness,  that  she  had 
been  offered,  with  her  husband,  an  apartment 
in  Calina's  house,  and  had  accepted  it.  This 
utter  want  of  delicacy  of  feeling  toward  him  re- 
volted Weber.  For  once  disdain  overmastered 
passion.     Still  more  irritated  was  he  when  he 


CARL  MARIA  VON  WEBER.  I  71 

learned  the  foul  advice  given  by  The'rese  to 
Caroline  Brandt,  for  whom  the  banker  Klein- 
wachter  showed  a  preference.  '  Hold  him  fast,' 
had  said  the  worldly-minded  woman ;  'he  is 
worth  the  trouble,  for  he  is  rich.'  All  this 
might  have  failed  in  opening  the  eyes  of  a  man 
so  utterly  blinded  by  mad  passion,  had  he  not 
had  a  little  physician  by  his  side,  who  had  the 
best  means  of  curing  his  disorder  by  the  sweet- 
est homoeopathic  medicaments,  which  doubtless 
had  already  begun  to  work  their  spell." 

It  was  not  long  before  his  passion  for 
Theresa  Bninetti  was  extinguished.  Caroline 
charmed  him  more  and  more  as  he  became 
acquainted  with  her ;  and  at  last  he  was  allowed 
to  pay  his  court  to  her,  not,  however,  without 
rousing  the  demon  of  jealousy  in  Therese. 
She  used  every  wile  and  fascination  to  gain 
him  back.  It  was  a  long,  hard  struggle  ;  but 
she  failed.  But  now  a  fresh  trouble  arose  ;  for 
Caroline  was  of  a  jealous  disposition  also,  and 
the  knowledge  of  his  past  relation  to  Therese, 
as  well  as  the  sight  of  her  efforts  to  beguile 
him,  very  nearly  ended  the  new  love  as  well 
as  the  composer.  Between  the  two  charmers 
he  was  prostrated  \dth  trouble  and  bodily  ail- 
ments, which  had  this  good  effect,  however, 
that  they  removed  him  from  the  neighborhood 
of  Therese's  fascinations.    By  the  advice  of 


172 


IVOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


his  friends  he  went  to  the  baths  of  Friedland, 
and  was  thus  released  from  the  one  tyrant  and 
was  able  to  devote  himself  more  assiduously 
to  the  other.  His  ardent  letters  to  Caroline 
soon  smoothed  over  all  difficulties,  and  re- 
moved her  doubts  of  him  for  several  weeks. 
They  arose  once  more,  however,  before  he 
returned  to  Prague,  when  she  heard  that  he 
was  again  the  centre  of  an  admiring  group. 
She  tormented  him  with  a  letter  on  the  subject, 
to  which  he  answered  :  — 

"  Be  pacified.  The  attention  ladies  show  me 
is  but  the  amusement  or  the  affectation  of  the 
hour.  There  is  no  thought  of  love  in  it,  my 
child.  You  must  not  suppose  all  other  women 
have  the  same  bad  taste  as  you.  The  embra- 
ces of  dear  old  Mamma  Beer  can  surely  be 
no  reproach  to  me.  My  lips,  eyes,  and  ears 
might  all  be  subjected  to  the  most  inquisitorial 
examination." 

Thus  the  two  lovers  were  harassed  by  storm 
after  storm.  At  last  came  a  period  of  rest. 
Then  scandal  began  to  assail  Caroline.  She 
was  charged  with  maintaining  improper  con- 
nections with  Weber.  To  rescue  her  from 
this  cowardly  assault,  he  implored  her  to 
marry  him  at  once.  Acting  upon  the  advice 
of  her  mother,  she  replied  that  she  must  have 


CARL  MARIA  VON  WEBER.         i  73 

time  to  reflect  whether  she  was  ready  to  give 
up  her  art.  Her  answer  led  to  a  bitter  quarrel 
between  them,  which  was  still  further  intensi- 
fied by  a  fresh  fit  of  jealousy  on  her  part, 
owing  to  the  a-lleged  attentions  which  he  had 
bestowed  upon  an  actress  named  Christine 
Bohler,  though  there  were  no  grounds  for  her 
suspicions.  Overwhelmed  with  his  troubles, 
he  precipitately  left  Prague  and  went  to  Mu- 
nich. During  his  stay  in  that  city  he  received 
a  letter  from  Caroline  saying  that  it  was 
best  the  engagement  between  them  should 
be  severed.  He  hurried  back  to  Prague,  and 
at  their  very  first  meeting  the  tie  was  renewed, 
never  to  be  broken  again ;  and  with  her  con- 
sent public  announcement  was  made  of  their 
formal  engagement.  From  this  moment  his 
creative  power  reasserted  itself,  and  song  after 
song  came  from  his  pen,  inspired  by  her  love, 
while  new  positions  of  honor  and  distinction 
were  offered  him. 

From  this  time  also  her  influence  is  clearly 
apparent  upon  his  musical  work,  particularly 
in  his  masterpiece,  that  flower  of  German 
operas,  "Der  Freischiitz."  He  consulted  her 
constantly,  both  in  the  preparation  of  the 
libretto  and  of  the  score  ;  and  her  suggestions 
heightened  its  beauty  and  wonderful  dramatic 


174 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


power.  He  called  her  his  "  public  with  two 
eyes,"  and  when  it  was  finished  he  said  to  her 
in  a  note  :  — 

The  whole  has  now  a  far  better  effect,  and 
I  must  thank  you  for  that,  my  poppet.  Your 
ideas  were  bold,  but  they  have  succeeded." 

On  the  4th  of  November,  1818,  the  fete- 
day  of  the  affianced  pair,  they  were  married 
at  Prague,  and  on  that  day  he  writes  in  his 
diary  :  — 

"  May  God  bless  our  union,  and  grant  me 
power  and  strength  to  make  my  beloved  Lina 
as  happy  and  contented  as  my  inmost  heart 
would  desire!  May  his  mercy  lead  me  in  all 
my  doings  !  " 

Though  she  was  still  occasionally  harassed 
by  jealous  doubts  of  him  when  he  was  absent 
from  her,  their  life  was  a  very  happy  one. 

In  1826,  shattered  in  health,  he  left  for 
London,  whence  he  was  destined  never  to 
return.  As  his  wife  heard  the  carriage  door 
close,  on  the  cold  winter  morning  that  he  left 
home,  she  rushed  to  her  room,  sank  upon  her 
knees,  and  cried  out  in  the  bitterness  of  her 
soul,  "  It  is  his  coffin  I  heard  closed  upon 
him."  The  only  tie  between  them  now  was 
that  of  correspondence.    His  son  says  :  — 


CARL  MARIA  VON  WEBER.  175 


"Nothing  can  be  more  touching  than  these 
letters,  amounting  in  all  to  fifty-three,  in  wliich 
the  sufferer  was  always  striving  to  conceal,  as 
far  as  he  could,  his  sufferings  ;  the  anxious  wo- 
man, left  behind,  always  repressing  her  own 
bitter  anguish  lest  it  should  increase  the  other's 
sorrow." 

In  another  place  his  son  says  :  — 

"  On  the  morning  after  the  first  representa- 
tion of  '  Oberon,'  Weber  lay  exhausted  in  his 
easy-chair,  when  Fiirstenau  entered  his  room 
with  a  new  potion.  '  Go,  go  ! '  murmured  the 
sufferer.  'No  doctor's  tinkering  can  help  me 
now  ;  the  machine  is  shattered.  But,  ah  !  would 
but  God  in  his  mercy  grant  that  it  might  hold 
together  till  I  could  embrace  my  Lina  and  my 
boys  once  more  ! '  " 

On  the  evening  of  the  2d  of  June  he  wrote 
his  last  letter  to  his  wife  :  — 

"  What  a  joy,  my  own  dear  darling,  your  let- 
ter gave  me  !  What  a  happiness  to  me  to  know 
that  you  are  well !  As  this  letter  requires  no  an- 
swer, it  will  be  a  short  one.  What  a  comfort  it 
is  not  to  have  to  answer.  .  .  .  God  bless  you 
all,  and  keep  you  well.  Oh  !  were  I  but  amongst 
you  all  again !  I  kiss  you  with  all  my  heart  and 
soul,  my  dearest  one.  Preserve  all  your  love  for 
me,  and  think  with  pleasure  on  him  who  loves 
thee  above  all,  thy  Carl." 

Two  days  later  he  called  his  friends  about 
him,  and  with  solemn  earnestness  turned  to 


176 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


them  and  murmured,  "God  reward  you  all 
for  your  kind  love  to  me."  One  by  one  they 
sorrowfully  left  the  room.  Fiirstenau  helped 
him  to  retire.  He  gave  him  his  thanks,  and 
then  with  a  kindly  smile  illuminating  his  face 
said,  "  Now  let  me  sleep."  They  were  his 
last  words.  The  next  morning  he  was  found 
dead.  On  the  14th  of  December,  1844,  the 
body  of  the  master  reached  Dresden,  and  was 
borne  to  the  cemetery  chapel  amid  thousands 
of  people,  who  lined  the  streets  and  stood 
with  uncovered  heads  paying  silent  homage 
to  his  memory.    His  son  says  :  — 

"  In  the  richly  decorated  chapel  of  the  ceme- 
tery, all  the  ladies  of  the  theatre,  with  Schroder- 
Devrient  at  their  head,  awaited  the  body  and 
covered  the  coffin  with  laurels.  The  ceremony 
was  at  an  end.  The  torches  were  extinguished  ; 
the  crowd  dispersed.  But  by  the  light  of  two 
candles  still  burning  on  the  altar  might  be  seen 
the  form  of  a  small,  now  middle-aged  woman, 
who  had  flung  herself  upon  the  bier,  whilst  a 
pale  young  man  knelt  praying  by  her  side." 

The  next  day  the  body  was  placed  in  the 
family  vault ;  and  Richard  Wagner,  the  rising 
genius  of  German  music,  spoke  a  solenm  and 
eloquent  tribute  of  praise  over  the  remains  of 
the  composer  of  "  Euryanthe,"  "  Freischiitz," 
and  "  Oberon." 


RICHARD  WAGNER. 


I  believe  in  God,  Mozart,  and  Beethoven,  and  in 
their  disciples  and  apostles.  I  believe  in  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  the  truth  of  Art,  —  one  and  indivisi- 
ble. I  believe  that  this  art  proceeds  from  God, 
and  dwells  in  the  hearts  of  all  enlightened  men.  I 
believe  that  all  may  become  blessed  through  this 
art.  —  Wagner. 

HE  career  of  Richard  Wagner,  the 
musician  of  the  future,  the  stanch 
protester  against  all  that  is  artificial 
and  conventional  in  music,  poet,  litterateur, 
and  dramatist,  the  great  high -priest  who 
wedded  music  and  poetry  in  a  union  now 
known  the  world  over  as  the  music-drama, 
was  strongly  influenced  by  the  power  of 
woman.  His  father,  who  was  superintendent 
of  pohce  at  Leipsic,  died  shortly  after  the 
composer's  birth;  and  his  mother,  who,  Dr. 
Nohl  says,  was  a  woman  of  a  very  refined 
and  spiritual  nature,"  then  married  an  actor, 

12 


178  WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


Ludwig  Geyer,  who  had  been  an  intimate 
friend  of  the  family.  The  step-fatlier  died 
before  the  boy  had  reached  his  seventh  year, 
but  he  had  already  recognized  his  artistic 
talent  and  had  intended  he  should  be  a  por- 
trait-painter. In  his  last  sickness,  however, 
he  heard  him  playing  melodies  from  ''Der 
Freischiitz "  in  an  adjoining  room,  and  ex- 
claimed, "  Can  it  be  that  he  has  a  talent  for 
music?  "  He  commended  him  to  his  mother, 
and  she  did  all  in  her  power  to  realize  almost 
the  last  words  of  her  husband  :  "  I  would  have 
made  something  out  of  him." 

But  little  has  been  made  known  of  Wagner's 
first  wife,  Minna  Planer,  an  actress  whom  he 
married  Nov.  24,  1836 ;  but  from  that  little  it 
is  certain  that  she  was  not  a  helpmate  to  him 
in  any  sense.  She  was  an  ordinary  woman, 
having  little  knowledge  of  music  and  still  less 
taste  for  it.  She  could  not  appreciate  his  am- 
bitions, or  understand  the  great  purpose  of  his 
Ufe.  She  died  in  1866 ;  but  during  her  last 
years  she  had  lived  separately  from  him  at 
Munich,  supported  by  an  allowance  which  he 
settled  upon  her.  At  this  time  Wagner  was 
Hving  in  retirement  at  Triebscheu,  near  Lu- 
cerne, where  Frau  von  Biilow,  wife  of  the 
eminent  pianist,  Hans  von  Biilow,  who  keenly 


RICHARD  WAGNER. 


179 


sympathized  with  his  artistic  aspirations,  min- 
istered to  his  domestic  comforts.  "  This  man, 
so  completely  controlled  by  his  demon,  should 
always  have  had  at  his  side  a  high-minded, 
appreciative  woman,  a  wife  that  would  have 
understood  the  war  that  was  constantly  waged 
within  him,"  is  the  judgment  passed  on  his 
first  wife  by  one  of  her  own  friends.  This 
woman  he  found  in  Cosima  von  Biilow ;  and 
it  certainly  is  an  extraordinary  tribute  to  Von 
Billow's  generosity,  unselfishness,  and  self- 
sacrifice  that  he  himself  acknowledged  the 
fitness  of  their  union. 

In  1834  Liszt,  the  pianist  and  composer, 
was  the  centre  of  a  brilliant  musical  and  lit- 
erary coterie  in  Paris,  which  comprised  such 
members  as  Chopin,  George  Sand,  Lamartine, 
Victor  Hugo,  and  others  almost  equally  noted. 
Among  them  was  the  Countess  d'Agoult, 
better  known  by  her  nom  de  plume,  "  Daniel 
Stern."  His  acquaintance  with  her  ripened 
into  an  attachment  of  familiarity,  which  was 
at  first  attractive  to  Liszt  and  subsequently 
repugnant.  He  was  considerably  her  junior, 
and  she  was  already  married ;  but  she  threw 
herself  upon  his  protection,  deserted  her 
family,  and  became  his  travelling  companion. 
She  accompanied  him  in  his  years  of  travel 


l8o  IVOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 

through  Italy  and  Germany,  but  in  1840  the 
attachment  began  to  weaken.  A  short  time 
before,  he  had  written  to  a  friend :  — 

"  When  the  ideal  form  of  a  woman  floats  before 
your  entranced  soul,  —  a  woman  whose  heaven- 
born  charms  bear  no  allurements  for  the  senses, 
but  only  wing  the  soul  to  devotion,  —  if  you  see 
at  her  side  a  youth  sincere  and  faithful  in  heart, 
weave  these  forms  into  a  moving  story  of  love, 
and  give  it  the  title,  '  On  the  Shores  of  the  Lake 
of  Como.'  " 

The  romance  was  a  brief  one.  The  Count- 
ess was  speedily  off  to  Paris  again  with  her 
children,  for  during  their  attachment  a  son  and 
two  daughters  had  been  born  to  them.  The 
son,  and  one  of  the  daughters,  who  married 
M.  Emile  Ollivier,  the  French  statesman,  are 
dead.  The  second  daughter  was  Cosima,  so 
named  in  memory  of  Como,  who  subsequently 
married  Von  Billow.  She  was  afterward  di- 
vorced from  him,  and,  as  has  already  been 
said,  met  Wagner  at  Triebscheu.  She  was  in 
complete  sympathy  with  him,  understood  him, 
inspired  him,  and  proved  a  blessing  to  him. 
They  were  married  in  1870 ;  and  the  first  fruit 
of  this  union  was  the  boy  Siegfried,  to  whom 
the  next  year  he  dedicated  the  incomparably 
beautiful    Siegfried  Idyl,"  which  pictures  the 


RICHARD  WAGNER. 


l8l 


charming  environments  of  his  childhood  at 
Lucerne.  For  the  first  time  in  his  hfe," 
says  Dr.  Nohl,  "he  secured  that  complete 
human  happiness  which  sustains  and  animates 
our  powers."  Judith  Gautier,  in  her  charming 
volume,  "Richard  Wagner  and  his  Poetical 
Work  from  Rienzi  to  Parsifal,"  gives  the  fol- 
lowing pleasant  picture  of  the  family  home  :  — 

"At  sunset  I  reached  Triebscheu,  that  con- 
secrated bit  of  land  where  since  that  time  I 
have  passed  so  many  pleasant  hours.  It  was  a 
sort  of  promontory,  extremely  picturesque,  jut- 
ting  into  the  lake.  There  was  neither  grating 
nor  door;  the  garden  had  no  defined  limits, 
and  extended  indefinitely  toward  the  neighboring 
mountains.  The  exterior  of  the  house  was  per- 
fectly plain,  —  gray,  with  dark  tiles  ;  but  in  the 
interior  arrangements,  full  of  grace  and  elegance, 
one  felt  the  presence  of  a  woman.  Madame 
Wagner  appeared  in  the  midst  of  her  children, 
fair,  tall,  and  gracious,  with  a  charming  smile, 
and  tender,  dreamy-blue  eyes.  The  sympathy 
with  which  she  inspired  me  from  the  first  mo- 
ment has  never  been  broken  ;  and  our  friendship, 
already  of  long  standing,  has  never  known  a 
cloud.  It  was  a  delightful  evening;  the  master 
displayed  incomparable  animation  and  gayety 
of  spirits." 

Never  was  there  a  more  perfect  compan- 
ionship, perhaps,  than  that  of  Wagner  and  his 


l82 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


wife.  Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  man- 
ner in  which  the  separation  from  Von  Biilow 
was  accomplished,  it  was  unquestionably  in 
accordance  with  German  law ;  and  the  fact  that 
he  made  no  objection  to  the  separation,  or  to 
the  subsequent  union  with  Wagner,  but  on 
the  other  hand  acknowledged  its  peculiar  fit- 
ness, and  that  he  was  and  still  is  one  of  the 
composer's  stanchest  and  most  zealous  ad- 
herents, perhaps  ought  to  satisfy  the  most 
scrupulous  moralist.  From  the  time  that 
Wagner  first  met  Cosima  in  Switzerland  to 
the  hour  of  his  sudden  death  in  Venice,  his 
life  was  crowned  with  perfect  happiness.  She 
is  a  woman  of  rare  personal  accomplishments 
and  extraordinary  magnetic  power,  and  she 
drew  about  her  in  their  Villa  Wahnfried  a 
circle  of  friends  and  artists  who  made  the 
atmosphere  congenial  and  inspiring  to  Wagner. 
She  herself,  however,  was  the  magician  who 
exerted  the  most  powerful  influence  upon 
him.  She  advised,  consoled,  encouraged, 
and  inspired  him.  He  lived  always  by  her 
side,  and  he  died  in  her  arms,  she  not  knowing 
that  the  beloved  one  had  passed  away,  but 
fancying  that  he  was  asleep.  After  a  life  of 
strife  such  as  few  men  have  to  encounter ;  of 
hatred  more  intense  and  love  more  devoted 


RICHARD  WAGNER.  1 83 


than  usually  falls  to  the  lot  of  humanity ;  of 
restless  energy,  indomitable  courage,  passion- 
ate devotion  to  the  loftiest  standards  of  art, 
and  unquestioning  allegiance  to  the  "  God 
that  dwelt  within  his  breast,"  he  rests  quietly 
under  the  trees  of  Villa  Wahnfried.  Inspired 
by  man's  steadfast  courage  and  a  noble 
woman's  love,  he  has  lifted  the  musical  art 
out  of  its  grossness,  artificiality,  and  vulgarity, 
invested  it  with  a  new  body,  and  animated  it 
with  a  new  and  pure  spirit. 


PART  III. 

WOMAN  AS  THE  INTERPRETER 
OF  MUSIC. 


WOMAN  AS  THE  INTERPRETER 
OF  MUSIC. 


||Wff'|T  only  remains,  in  tracing  the  influence 
-  I  of  woman  upon  music,  to  consider 
her  as  its  interpreter,  mainly  through 
the  medium  of  the  voice,  though  there  are 
not  wanting  many  female  artists  who  have 
excelled  in  instrumental  music.  This  branch 
of  the  subject  needs  but  brief  consideration, 
since  its  facts  are  conceded,  and  it  is  almost 
an  axiom  that  without  interpreters  there  would 
be  no  composers.  All  the  elements  which 
woman  has  in  her  nature  —  love,  pathos, 
passion,  poetry,  and  religion  —  combine  to 
perfect  her  song,  and  give  fitting  expression 
to  the  ideas  of  the  masters.  Woman's  song 
is  the  first  sound  the  child  hears.  May  we 
not  fancy  that  when  the  child  has  grown  to 
old  age,  it  is  still  the  song  of  woman  which, 


i88 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


though  inaudible  to  those  standing  around, 
kindles  a  smile  upon  the  dying  face,  and 
brings  a  look  of  recognition  to  the  eyes,  as  if 
they  beheld  once  more  the  old  familiar  face 
of  the  mother,  and  heard  the  familiar  voice 
which  sung  to  the  old  man  when  all  his  world 
was  contained  in  the  hollow  of  a  cradle? 
And  between  these  extremes  of  birth  and 
death  in  every  age,  what  an  endless  proces- 
sion of  singers  memory  will  summon  !  How 
they  approach,  pass  before  us,  and  disappear, 
crowned  with  their  laurels  of  victory  !  The 
last  two  centuries  have  been  prolific  in  great 
artists,  though  the  present  time  is  poorer  than 
any  other.  To  name  only  a  few  of  them  will 
suffice  for  the  purposes  of  this  essay  ;  and  they 
may  readily  and  conveniently  be  divided  into 
eras,  as  follows  :  From  1700  to  1750,  the  four 
great  artists  were  Faustina  Bordoni,  Caterina 
Mingotti,  Caterina  GabrieUi,  and  Francesca 
Cuzzoni.  Bordoni  was  from  Venice,  and  Cuz- 
zoni  from  Parma ;  and  their  names  will  always 
be  associated  in  consequence  of  their  bitter 
rivalry.  Handel  brought  Bordoni  to  London 
to  sing  in  his  operas,  in  which  Cuzzoni  had 
already  performed  with  success.  Their  simul- 
taneous appearance  was  a  signal  for  the  most 
extraordinary  popular  demonstrations.  The 


THE  INTERPRETER  OF  MUSIC.      1 89 

city  was  divided  against  itself ;  and  the  parti- 
sanship at  last  extended  even  to  families,  as 
we  find  Sir  Robert  Walpole  declaring  for  Bor- 
doni,  while  Lady  Walpole  was  an  enthusiastic 
advocate  of  Cuzzoni.  The  press  was  filled 
with  stinging  epigrams  and  atrocious  libels. 
Duels  were  fought.  The  wrangling  of  audi- 
ences at  times  was  riotous.  One  night,  when 
the  two  queens  of  song  appeared  on  the  same 
stage,  they  came  to  blows.  At  last  Bordoni 
drove  her  rival  from  the  field,  and  the  latter 
ended  her  days  in  a  charity  hospital.  Bordoni 
continued  her  victorious  career  with  great 
brilliancy  for  thirty  years,  winning  in  her  last 
years  the  plaudits  even  of  the  captious  critic, 
Frederick  the  Great.  Her  successor  was 
Mingotti,  a  Neapolitan,  who  was  educated  by 
Porpora,  and  patronized  by  Metastasio.  She 
eclipsed  the  fame  of  Bordoni,  though  her 
stage  life  was  briefer.  The  last  of  the  four, 
Gabrielli,  who  was  educated  by  a  cardinal  of 
the  same  name,  with  the  additional  help  of 
Metastasio,  excelled  all  the  others  in  natural 
talent,  and  aroused  a  frenzy  of  enthusiasm 
whenever  she  sang,  with  the  brilliant  execu- 
tion and  exquisite  quality  of  her  voice. 

From  1750  to  1800  there  were  six  repre- 
sentative singers  :  Gertrude  Elizabeth  Mara, 


190 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


Sophie  Arnould,  Nancy  Storace,  Elizabeth 
Billington,  and  Angelica  Catalani.  Mara's 
name  is  inseparably  connected  with  Handel's 
music.  Insignificant  in  appearance  and  in- 
different as  an  actress,  her  sweet  and  powerful 
voice  and  her  unrivalled  skill  in  bravura  music 
more  than  atoned  for  her  other  deficiencies. 
When  Frederick  the  Great  first  heard  her 
sing,  he  testily  declared  he  would  rather  hear 
his  horse  neigh ;  but  she  soon  conquered  the 
royal  grumbler,  and  he  speedily  became  her 
enthusiastic  champion.  In  Paris  she  made  a 
warm  friend  of  Marie  Antoinette.  She  brought 
all  London  to  her  feet  by  the  manner  in  which 
she  sang  at  the  great  Handel  Commemoration 
in  Westminster  Abbey,  in  May,  1 784.  Burney, 
the  musical  historian  and  critic,  who  was  pres- 
ent on  that  occasion,  has  left  his  impression 
of  her  singing,  in  the  elegant  volume  he  pub- 
lished, describing  the  various  days'  perform- 
ances of  that  festival,  which  excelled  all  others 
held  up  to  that  time.  Of  her  singing  in  the 
solo  from  Handel's  anthem,  "Oh,  sing  unto 
the  Lord  a  new  song,"  he  says  :  — 

"  Madame  Mara's  voice  and  manner  of  sing- 
ing in  this  plain  and  solemn  air,  so  admirably 
accompanied  on  the  hautbois  by  Fisher,  had  a 
sudden  effect  on  myself,  which  I  never  before 


THE  INTERPRETER  OF  MUSIC.     19 1 


experienced,  even  from  her  performance  of  more 
pathetic  music.  I  have  long  admired  her  voice 
and  abihties  in  various  styles  of  singing  ;  but 
never  imagined  tenderness  the  peculiar  char- 
acteristic of  her  performance  ;  however,  here, 
though  she  had  but  a  few  simple  notes  to  deliver, 
they  made  me  shiver,  and  I  found  it  extremely 
difficult  to  avoid  bursting  into  tears  on  hearing 
them.  Indeed,  she  had  not  only  the  power  of 
conveying  to  the  remotest  corner  of  this  immense 
building  the  softest  and  most  artificial  inflections 
of  her  sweet  and  brilliant  voice,  but  articulated 
every  syllable  of  the  words  with  such  neatness, 
precision,  and  purity  that  it  was  rendered  as  audi- 
ble and  intelligible  as  it  could  possibly  have  been, 
in  a  small  theatre,  by  mere  declamation." 

As  an  interpreter  of  sacred  music  this  great 
artist  stood  almost  peerless.  Her  triumphant 
career  was  continued  to  the  extreme  age  of 
seventy-three  ;  and  on  her  eighty-second  birth- 
day Goethe  dedicated  a  poetical  tribute  to 
her.  Sophie  Arnould  was  brought  to  Paris 
by  Gluck,  and  sang  in  his  operas  under  the 
patronage  of  Marie  Antoinette  with  the  most 
brilliant  success.  Nancy  Storace  was  among 
the  first  who  made  successes  in  EngUsh  opera. 
She  had  previously  made  a  brilliant  reputation 
in  Italy,  and  carried  Vienna  by  storm,  in- 
cluding the  Emperor  Joseph,  with  whom  she 
was  a  great  pet.     Elizabeth  Billington,  as 


192 


WOMAiV  IN  MUSIC. 


beautiful  in  person  as  she  was  brilliant  in 
song,  captivated  Haydn,  during  his  London 
visit,  with  her  beautiful  voice.  Sir  Joshua 
Reynolds  painted  her  as  St.  Cecilia,  as  a 
companion  to  his  portrait  of  Siddons  as  the 
Tragic  Muse.  Haydn,  contemplating  the 
picture,  exclaimed  to  the  artist,  "You  have 
made  a  great  mistake."  "  How  !  what !  " 
said  the  startled  painter.  "Why,"  replied 
Haydn,  "you  have  represented  Mrs.  Billington 
listening  to  the  angels ;  you  should  have 
made  the  angels  listening  to  her."  Salomon, 
Haydn's  manager,  used  to  say,  "She  sings 
with  her  fingers,"  for  she  was,  a  marvellous 
pianist  as  well  as  singer.  Catalan!  had  a 
career  of  almost  unexampled  success  and 
good  fortune,  though  a  cold  singer,  carrying 
her  audiences  by  storm  with  the  tremendous 
volume  and  wonderful  richness  of  her  tone,  as 
well  as  with  the  marvellous  facility  and  rapid- 
ity of  her  execution.  She  had  so  powerful 
a  voice  that  Queen  Charlotte,  after  hearing 
her  and  being  asked  her  opinion,  declared  : 
"  I  was  wishing  for  a  little  cotton  in  my  ears 
all  the  time."  A  wag,  being  asked  if  he  would 
go  to  York  to  hear  her,  replied  :  "  I  shall  hear 
her  better  where  I  am."  A  critic,  describing 
her  singing  of  Luther's  Hymn,  says  :  — 


THE  INTERPRETER  OF  MUSIC.  193 

"The  majesty  of  her  sustained  tones,  —  so 
rich,  so  ample  as  not  only  to  fill  but  overflow  the 
cathedral  where  I  heard  her,  —  the  solemnity  of 
her  manner,  and  the  St.  Cecilia-like  expression 
of  her  raised  eyes  and  rapt  countenance,  pro- 
duced a  thrilling  eflect  through  the  united  me- 
dium of  sight  and  hearing.  Whoever  has  heard 
Catalan!  sing  this,  accompanied  by  Schmidt 
on  the  trumpet,  has  heard  the  utmost  that 
music  can  do.  Then  in  the  succeeding  chorus, 
when  the  same  awful  words,  *  the  trumpet 
sounds,  the  graves  restore  the  dead  which  they 
contained  before,'  are  repeated  by  the  whole 
choral  strength,  her  voice,  piercing  through  the 
clang  of  instruments  and  the  burst  of  other 
voices,  is  heard  as  distinctly  as  if  it  were  alone  ! 
During  the  encore  I  found  my  way  to  the  top  of 
a  tower  on  the  outside  of  the  cathedral,  and 
could  still  distinguish  her  wonderful  voice." 

The  half-century  from  1800  to  1850  was 
rich  in  great  artists  ;  and  to  this  period  belong 
Pisaroni,  Pasta,  Schroder  -  Devrient,  Anna 
Milder,  Sontag,  Malibran,  Grisi,  Falcon,  Clara 
Novello,  Pauline  Viardot,  Dorus-Gras,  Persiani, 
Catharine  Hayes,  Alboni,  and  Jenny  Lind,  —  a 
galaxy  of  singers  unexcelled  in  all  the  annals 
of  song.  Meyerbeer  and  Rossini  kept  their 
pens  busy  for  Pisaroni.  Pasta,  with  her  won- 
derful dramatic  power,  founded  a  new  school 
of  lyric  art,  and  astonished  the  world  with  her 
13 


194 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


personation  of  Norma,  which  Bellini  wrote  for 
her.  Beethoven's  Leonora  in  "  Fidelio  "  will 
ever  be  associated  with  Milder,  the  creator  of 
the  part,  —  a  singer  of  whom  the  aged  Haydn 
said,  when  he  heard  her  sing  to  her  teacher, 
"  The  best  way  to  form  an  idea  of  her  voice  is 
to  hear  a  full,  well-tuned  organ  register ;  "  and 
of  whom  Napoleon  more  briefly  said,  "  Voila 
une  voix  !  "  Schroder-Devrient,  the  daughter 
of  Sophie  Schroder,  described  as  "  the  Siddons 
of  Germany,"  was  also  associated  with  this 
magnificent  role,  in  which  her  success  was  ex- 
traordinary. Where  have  the  great  artists  gone, 
that  there  are  no  longer  any  Leonoras  or  Nor- 
mas  of  the  heroic  stamp  ?  Of  Malibran  and 
Sontag,  Th^ophile  Gautier  writes  :  — 

"  In  1827  Mile.  Sontag  was  attracted  to  Paris, 
the  art-centre  whither  all  celebrities  tend.  She 
made  her  debut  in  the  role  of  Desdemona.  Her 
success  was  incredible;  and  it  was  no  slight 
matter  to  occupy  the  pri7na  donjia^s  golden 
throne  with  Malibran,  who  was  the  most  won- 
derful incarnation  of  music.  Malibran,  as  great 
a  tragedienne  as  a  vocalist,  —  grace,  self-pos- 
session, originality,  poetry,  and  genius  com- 
bined in  one  impassioned  organization,  —  was 
reproduced  by  one  of  those  rare  miracles  of  which 
Nature  is  unfortunately  too  sparing.  Their  loyal 
rivalry  was  profitable  to  art;  passion  reigned 


THE  INTERPRETER  OF  MUSIC.  195 

on  the  Stage  and  among  the  audience  ;  thunders 
of  applause  were  evoked  by  both  performers,  for 
the  two  camps  ended  in  uniting  in  a  reciprocal 
enthusiasm  ;  Sontag's  partisans  applauded  Mal- 
ibran,  and  Malibran's  partisans  applauded  Son- 
tag.  To  gain  access  to  the  Italians,  even  by 
paying  three  times  the  usual  price  for  a  seat, 
was  a  rare  favor ;  and  the  queue  often  included 
Meyerbeer,  Haldvy,  Auber,  Rossini.  O  happy 
days,  when  art  engrossed  all  minds,  and  ab- 
sorbed all  political  passions  !  " 

Grisi  was  a  peerless  diva  in  personal  beauty ; 
a  great  actress,  especially  in  the  roles  of  Norma 
and  Lucrezia  Borgia  ;  and  a  singer  who  could 
act,  as  well  as  an  actress  who  could  sing,  — 
a  rare  combination  now-a-days.  Chorley  says 
of  her :  — 

"A  quarter  of  a  century  is  a  fair  length  of 
reign  for  any  queen,  —  a  brilliant  one  for  an 
opera  queen  of  these  modern  times,  when  wear 
and  tear  are  so  infinitely  greater  than  they  used 
to  be.  The  supremacy  of  Madame  Grisi  has 
been  prolonged  by  a  combination  of  qualities 
rare  at  any  period.  In  our  day  there  has  been 
no  woman  so  beautiful,  so  liberally  endowed 
with  voice  and  with  dramatic  impulse  as  herself, 
Catalani  excepted." 

Mile.  Falcon,  of  the  Grand  Opera,  achieved 
wonderful  success  as  Rachel  in  Hal^vy's 
"Jewess."    Says  one  who  heard  her:  — 


196 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


"Who  does  not  know  the  power,  the  soul, 
which  she  threw  into  this  glorious  personation  ? 
Who  does  not  retain  the  strong  recollection  of 
her  brilliant  tragic  and  lyric  qualities  ?  She  was 
the  genuine  type  of  Hebrew  beauty,  —  the  real 
daughter  of  the  Mounts  of  Sinai  and  of  Bethle- 
hem. The  eagle  eye  sparkles  with  liquid  flame  ; 
the  form  of  steel  is  pliant  in  its  strength  ;  the 
complexion  is  brown  and  warm ;  the  long  hair 
of  raven  black  floats  in  the  breeze,  free  from 
that  pale  and  sickly  shade  which  the  climates 
of  the  north  give  to  the  skins  and  locks  of  their 
daughters.  It  is  ebony  bathed  in  sunlight. 
When  M.  Scribe  saw  Mile.  Falcon,  he  perceived 
at  once,  with  his  usual  penetration,  that  he  had 
Judith  before  him,  and  that  he  had  a  glorious 
representative  of  a  well-devised  drama.  That 
drama  he  wrote,  and  created  for  his  heroine  a 
world  of  tragic  pomp,  thrilling  situations,  and 
deep  emotions." 

Clara  Novello,  one  of  the  noblest  of  women, 
commenced  her  career  as  an  operatic  singer, 
and  closed  it,  with  wonderful  success,  as  the 
grandest  oratorio  singer  England  has  yet  pro- 
duced, and  the  principal  vocalist  at  the  great 
English  festivals.  When  Rossini  first  pro- 
duced his  "  Stabat  Mater,"  with  Donizetti  for 
conductor,  she  had  the  rare  honor  of  being 
selected  as  the  principal  soloist.  Persiani  was 
one  of  the  finest  singers  in  the  school  of  light 


THE  INTERPRETER  OF  MUSIC. 


197 


operas,  like  "  Lucia  "  and  "  Somnambula," 
and  her  Rosina  in  the  "  Barber  of  Seville " 
was  always  a  triumph  of  enthusiasm.  Pauline 
Viardot,  second  daughter  of  the  famous  singer 
and  musician,  Garcia,  is  still  remembered  for 
her  wonderful  personation  of  Valentine  in 
"  The  Huguenots,"  and  as  one  of  those  great 
dramatic  singers  of  the  grand  school  whose 
mantles  are  still  waiting  for  successors.  Schu- 
mann sang  her  praises  ;  and  M.  Escudier,  the 
great  French  critic,  says  of  her :  — 

Her  singing  is  expressive,  descriptive,  thrill- 
ing, full,  equal  and  just,  brilliant  and  vibrating, 
especially  in  the  medium  and  in  the  lower 
chords.  Capable  of  every  style  of  art,  it  is 
adapted  to  all  the  feelings  of  nature,  but  par- 
ticularly to  outbursts  of  grief,  joy,  or  despair. 
The  dramatic  coloring  which  her  voice  imparts 
to  the  slightest  shades  of  feeling  and  passion  is 
a  real  phenomenon  of  vocalization  which  cannot 
be  analyzed." 

Madame  Dorus-Gras,  another  great  singer 
of  this  time,  m.ade  almost  as  deep  an  impres- 
sion in  her  personation  of  Marguerite  de  Valois 
in  ''The  Huguenots,"  as  Viardot  in  that  of 
the  principal  role.  Catharine  Hayes,  the 
lovely  Irish  singer  ;  Bosio  ;  D'Angri ;  Alboni, 
the  greatest  alto  of  the  present  century,  whose 


198 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


sonorous  and  yet  mellow  liquid  voice  em- 
braced fully  two  octaves,  every  note  pure  and 
beautiful ;  and  Jenny  Lind,  whose  fame  is 
world-wide,  —  may  almost  be  said  to  belong  to 
the  present  day,  so  near  are  their  victories  to 
us.  But  who  are  their  successors  ?  The  cat- 
alogue of  singers  in  our  own  day  is  a  long 
one ;  but,  as  compared  with  the  list  from 
1800  to  1850,  it  does  not  contain  equally 
great  names.  Two  of  the  greatest  singers  of 
the  present  period,  Tietjens  and  Parepa,  are 
forever  silent.  Of  all  these  artists,  Tietjens 
was  incomparably  the  greatest.  One  of  the 
best  of  critics  a  few  years  ago  wrote  :  — 

"  We  presume  it  is  useless  to  say  a  single 
word  upon  the  extraordinary  gifts  and  accom- 
plishments of  this  truly  extraordinary  singer. 
A  voice  so  rich  in  quahty,  so  extensive  and  so 
flexible,  combined  with  a  temperament  so  pas- 
sionate, and  a  dramatic  perception  so  exact, 
carries  us  back  to  the  highest  standards  of  lyric 
excellence  in  our  memory.  The  great  line  that 
commenced  with  Pasta,  and  was  sustained  in 
all  its  honors  by  Schroder,  Malibran,  and 
Grisi,  finds  no  feeble  vindication  in  the  genius 
of  Tietjens." 

And  with  her  the  line  stops.  Madame 
Parepa- Rosa,  "the  stainless  lady  of  the  match- 
less voice,"  was  a  great  vocalist,  not  a  great 


THE  INTERPRETER  OF  MUSIC.  199 

prima  donna;  for  she  lacked  the  intense 
dramatic  quality  to  make  her  personations 
complete  and  rounded.  As  a  singer  of  ex- 
ceptional power  and  beaut)'  of  voice,  and  as  a 
versatile  vocalist,  she  has  rarely  been  excelled  ; 
for  she  shone  with  equal  briUiancy  in  the 
opera,  the  oratorio,  and  in  the  ballad  school, 
while  in  the  beauty,  sweetness,  grace,  and 
dignity  of  her  noble  womanhood,  she  com- 
mended herself  to  the  public  so  intimately 
that  her  death  was  almost  universally  regarded 
as  a  personal  loss.  Zucchi,  Lagrange,  Gaz- 
zaniga,  and  Parodi  were  ty^^es  of  the  old 
school,  when  great  singers  were  great  actors, 
and  great  actors  were  great  singers ;  but  they 
have  retired,  and  we  have  left  a  list  of  beauti- 
ful, brilHant  singers,  nearly  all  of  whom,  how- 
ever, have  made  their  successes  in  the  light 
works  of  the  lyric  stage,  —  Adehna  Patti, 
Pauline  Lucca,  Marie  Roze,  !Madame  Torri- 
ani,  Zelda  Seguin,  Emma  Nevada,  Emma 
Abbot,  Alwina  Valleria,  Anna  de  Belocca, 
Minnie  Hauck,  Emma  Albani,  Christine  Nils- 
son,  Clara  Louise  Kellogg,  Anne  Louise  Cary 
(lately  retired  from  the  stage),  Etelka  Gerster, 
Marie  Marimon,  and  others  ;  and  on  the  con- 
cert stage  Carlotta  Patti,  fast  losing  her  bril- 
liant powers,  Miss  Emma  Thursby,  Antoinette 


200 


V/OMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


Sterling,  Mrs.  Osgood,  who  has  taken  a  lead- 
ing position  as  an  oratorio  and  ballad  singer, 
Anna  Drasdil,  the  veteran  Anna  Bishop, 
come  down  from  a  former  generation,  and  a 
long  list  of  others  whom  it  is  not  necessary  to 
mention.  Will  the  Wagner  school  develop  a 
second  line  of  the  heroic  artists?  It  is  not 
improbable ;  for  already  one  has  appeared, 
Frau  Materna,  the  majestic  Brunnhilde  of 
the  Nibelungen  cyclus. 

It  is  almost  superfluous  to  emphasize  the 
fact  that  the  interpretation  of  vocal  music  is 
specially  the  province  of  woman,  or  that  she 
is  destined  to  achieve  triumphs  in  the  future 
as  brilliant  as  those  in  the  past.  It  is  a  realm 
where  her  sway  will  always  be  undisputed ; 
and  so  long  as  there  are  artists  to  sing,  they 
will  inspire  composers  to  write.  It  does  not 
follow,  however,  that  every  singer  will  be  a 
prima  donna,  though  she  may  achieve  a  great 
name  as  an  artist,  and  figure  upon  the  bills 
and  programmes  by  that  appellation.  Singers 
are  plenty :  prime  donne  are  few.  The  late 
Richard  Grant  White,  in  one  of  his  brilliant 
essays,  The  Musical  Monster,"  referring  to 
Gabrielli,  says  :  — 

"  No  woman  can  be  a  great  prima  donna  who 
has  not  to  a  certain  degree  her  three  principal 


THE  INTERPRETER  OF  MUSIC.  201 


qualifications,  —  a  grand  voice,  the  grand  style 
which  comes  of  fine  and  highly  cultivated  musi- 
cal intelligence,  and  beauty,  or,  if  not  beauty, 
at  least  an  attractive  person  and  a  pleasing 
manner." 

Some  exception  might  be  taken  to  the  last 
qualification,  at  least  so  far  as  he  claims  it  to 
be  an  essential  condition.  Unquestionably 
personal  beauty  goes  a  great  ways  in  making 
an  artist  a  favorite  with  the  public  ;  but  many 
artists  with  beautiful  persons  have  been  favor- 
ites with  the  public,  who  were  not  great  prime 
donne,  while  many  artists  have  been  great  prime 
donne  to  whom  Nature  had  been  unkind  in 
the  way  of  physical  charm.  Another  quali- 
fication, and  almost  an  indispensable  one, 
should  be  added  to  his  category ;  and  that  is 
repose,  which  is  one  of  the  foundation  prin- 
ciples of  true  art.  Still,  while  a  given  age 
may  produce  but  few  great  prime  donne,  this 
should  not  be  a  discouragement,  for  it  may 
produce  many  great  singers  who  may  give 
real  pleasure  to  audiences.  All  composers 
cannot  be  Beethovens,  any  more  than  all 
pamters  Raphaels  :  but  there  are  degrees  of 
culture  and  service  worth  striving  for  by 
woman,  that  will  command  great  success  and 
ample  reward ;  and  no  time  was  ever  more 


202 


WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


advantageous  for  these  results  than  the  pres- 
ent. The  conditions,  however,  are  exacting. 
Any  one  can  recall  singers  with  exceptionally 
fine  voices,  who  have  failed,  not  because  they 
had  fine  voices,  but  because  they  never  had 
the  patience,  perseverance,  and  intelligence  to 
learn  how  to  use  them.  Duprez  used  to  say, 
"  Nothing  injures  a  singer  so  much  as  a  fine 
voice."  Perhaps  his  aphorism  would  have  been 
less  exaggerated  had  he  said,  Nothing  is  so 
fatal  to  a  singer  as  to  rely  upon  a  naturally  fine 
voice  for  success."  The  greatest  singers  have 
reached  their  positions  by  persevering  study, 
resolute  courage,  patient  endurance,  and  the 
constant  habit  of  doing  even  the  most  un- 
important thing  well.  A  really  great  artist 
employs  the  resources  of  her  art  as  conscien- 
tiously in  a  ballad  as  she  would  in  a  grand 
dramatic  aria.  With  the  proper  study  and  a 
rightly  directed  culture,  there  is  no  reason 
why  American  women  should  not  take  leading 
places  in  the  musical  world,  as  they  have 
exceptionally  fine  voices.  Surely  there  is 
every  impulse  and  incentive  for  study  in  the 
experiences  of  Adelina  Patti,  Emma  Albani, 
Minnie  Hauck,  Marie  Litta,  Antoinette  Ster- 
ling, Emma  Osgood,  Anne  Louise  Gary,  Clara 
Louise  Kellogg,  and  other  American  women 


THE  INTERPRETER  OF  MUSIC.  203 

who  have  made  themselves  famous  all  over 
Europe. 

In  instrumental  music  woman  has  not  taken 
as  high  a  position  as  in  vocal  music,  mainly 
because  her  advantages  have  not  been  im- 
proved wisely.  It  has  become  the  fashion  to 
educate  all  girls,  indiscriminately,  to  play  the 
piano,  without  reference  to  their  ability  or 
musical  taste.  The  result  is  that  Clara  Schu- 
manns,  Ess^poffs,  Mehligs,  Goddards,  and 
Krebbses  do  not  abound,  and  that  out  of 
fifty  young  ladies  who  go  through  the  con- 
ventional piano  course,  one  may  become  a 
good  amateur  player.  The  gradus  of  the 
piano  in  our  time  seldom  leads  to  Parnassus. 
There  are  other  instruments  which  might  be 
studied  with  great  advantage  by  woman,  espe- 
cially the  violin  and  harp.  Camilla  Urso,  the 
sisters  Milanollo,  and  Madame  Neruda  have 
shown  what  woman  can  accomplish  with  the 
violin.  The  instrument  is  admirably  adapted 
to  her  delicacy  of  taste  and  sensibihty,  and 
nothing  but  a  silly  prejudice  keeps  her  from 
its  study.  There  is  no  reason  why  she  should 
not  learn  to  play,  except  it  may  be  the 
awkwardness  of  the  admixture  of  women  in 
orchestras.     This   may  militate  against  its 


204  WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 

Study  for  such  a  purpose ;  but  there  is  no 
reason  why  she  should  not  strive  to  be  a  solo- 
piayer.  The  harp  has  gone  out  of  fashion ; 
but  it  should  be  speedily  reinstated,  not  only 
as  a  beautiful  medium  of  accompaniment  and 
an  elegant  ornament  for  the  drawing-room, 
but  as  the  instrument  above  all  others  best 
calculated  to  display  woman's  taste  and  sweet- 
ness,^ and  most  happily  adapted  to  her  native 
grace  of  person  and  elegance  of  movement. 
The  organ  also  should  be  more  generally  stud- 
ied by  woman,  as  a  guide  to  a  higher  musical 
knowledge  and  the  gateway  to  the  truest  and 
noblest  forms  of  musical  literature.  Two  wo- 
men of  this  country  —  Miss  Carrie  T.  King- 
man of  Chicago,  and  Mrs.  Frohock  of  Boston 
—  have  shown  that  its  most  extreme  difficulties 
can  be  mastered.  The  latter  now  devotes  her- 
self to  the  piano,  but  at  one  time  took  a  high 
position  as  an  organist ;  while  the  former,  by 
constant  practice  and  study,  has  mastered  even 
the  colossal  difficulties  of  Thiele,  and  played 
the  works  of  Bach,  and  the  sonatas  of  Merkel, 
Haupt,  and  other  modem  German  organ-writ- 
ers, in  a  manner  few  male  players  can  equal. 

The  instances  which  have  been  given  in 
these  pages  are  only  a  few  out  of  the  many. 


THE  INTERPRETER  OF  MUSIC.  205 

showing  the  influence  of  woman  upon  musical 
composers  and  in  the  field  of  vocal  and  in- 
strumental music,  which  belongs  of  right  to 
her,  but  which  has  not  yet  been  cultivated 
with  the  earnestness  and  intelligence  it  de- 
serves. Although  not  the  creator,  she  has 
inspired  the  creations,  and  then  interpreted 
them  to  the  world.  Man  may  be  the  intellect 
of  music :  she  is  its  heart  and  soul.  What 
she  has  not  done  with  music  matters  little 
compared  with  the  great  glory  and  beauty  she 
has  given  to  music.  By  the  side  of  the  great 
composers,  in  equal  glory  and  fame,  should  be 
placed  such  women  as  Constance  Weber, 
Fanny  Mendelssohn,  Bettina  von  Arnim, 
Madame  Voigt,  the  friend  of  Schumann, 
Cosima  Wagner,  Delphi ne  Potocka,  Clara 
Schumann,  Pasta,  Mahbran,  Grisi,  and  those 
others  who  have  elevated  music  to  greater 
heights  by  inspiring  its  creation,  and  giving  it  to 
the  world  through  the  medium  of  the  voice. 

No  grander  work  can  occupy  woman's  at- 
tention. Music  was  the  first  sound  heard  in 
the  creation,  when  the  morning  stars  sang  to- 
gether. It  was  the  first  sound  heard  at  the 
birth  of  Christ,  when  the  angels  sang  together 
above  the  plains  of  Bethlehem.  It  is  the  uni- 
versal language,  which  appeals  to  the  universal 


2o6  WOMAN  IN  MUSIC. 


heart  of  mankind.  It  greets  our  entrance 
into  this  world,  and  solemnizes  our  departure. 
Its  thrill  pervades  all  Nature, —  in  the  hum  of 
the  tiniest  insect,  in  the  tops  of  the  wind- 
smitten  pines,  in  the  solemn  diapason  of  the 
ocean.  And  there  must  come  a  time  when  it 
will  be  the  only  suggestion  left  of  our  human 
nature  and  the  creation,  since  it  alone,  of  all 
things  on  earth,  is  known  in  heaven.  The 
human  soul  and  music  are  alone  eternal. 


APPENDIX. 


APPENDIX. 


To  make  this  essay  complete,  the  writer  ap- 
pends, first,  a  list  of  the  prominent  female  com- 
posers during  the  past  three  centuries:  and, 
second,  a  list  of  the  dedications  made  to  women 
by  the  composers  mentioned  in  the  body  of  the 
work,  so  far  as  it  has  been  possible  to  obtain 
them. 

FEMALE  COMPOSERS, 
^eijentecntl)  Ccnturp, 

Caccini,  Francesca.    Italy.  Songs. 
Calegari,  Cornelia.    Italy.  Songs. 
Guerre,  Elizabeth  Claude.    France.  Operas. 
SrRozzi,  Barbara.    Italy.  Songs. 

Cig:I)teentl)  Centurp. 

Lebrun,  Francesca.    Germany.    Sonata  for  piano. 
DussEK,  Sophia.    Scotland.    Piano  and  harp  music. 
CiANCHETTiNi,  Veronica.    Bohemia.  Concertos 
and  sonatas. 

H 


2IO 


APPENDIX. 


Agnesi,  Maria  Teresa.   Italy.  Operas. 
Anna  Amalia,  Duchess  of  Saxe  Weimar.  Dramatic 
music. 

Anna  Amalia,  Princess  of  Prussia.  Cantatas. 
Paradies,  Maria  Theresa.    Austria.  Operettas. 
PouiLLAU,  Mile.    France.    Three  sonatas. 
Reichardt,  Julia.    Germany.  Songs. 
SCHROETER,  CoRONA  ELIZABETH.    Poland.  Songs. 
Sernien,  Maddalena.    Italy.    Violin  music. 
Wensley,  Frances  Foster.    Englajtd.  Songs. 
Abrams,  Miss.    England.  Songs. 
Bayer,  Mile.    Austria.  Songs. 
Blangini,  Mile.    Italy.    Violin  music. 
Brandenstein,  Charlotte  de.  Germany.  Sonatas. 
Brandes,  Charlotte  Wilhelmina.  Germany. 

Songs  and  piano  music. 
Bresson,  Mile.    France.  Songs. 
Gretry,  Lucile.    France,    Dramatic  music. 
GuENiN,  Mile.    France.  Operas. 
Lannoy,  La  Comtesse.    Italy.    Romances  and 

sonatas. 

LiLiEN,  Antoinette  de.   Austria.    Piano  music. 
Louis,  Mme.    France.  Sonatas. 
Martinez,  Mariane.    Austria.  Masses. 
Montgerault,  Mme.    France.  Sonatas. 
Travanet,  Mme.  de.    France.  Romances. 
Blahetka,  Leopoldine.    Austria.  Songs. 

il^imeteent!)  Centurp. 

Mounsey,  Ann  Shepard.    England.    Oratorio  of 

"  The  Nativity  " 
Mounsey,  Elizabeth.   England.    Pieces  for  organ 

and  piano. 

Loder,  Kate  Fanny.   England.    One  opera,  one 
overture,  and  three  sonatas. 


APPENDIX. 


211 


Lang,  Josephine.    Germany.  Songs. 
Hensel,  Fanny  Cecile.     Germany.    Songs  and 
piano  music. 

Gabriel,  Mary  Ann  Virginia.  E^tgland.  Ope- 
rettas and  songs. 

Blahetka,  Leopoldine.  Austria.  Concert  pieces 
for  piano. 

Bonne,  d'Alpy,    France.  Songs. 

Caradori,  Allan.    Italy.  Songs. 

Gail,  Sophie.   France.    Dramatic  music. 

Miles,  Mrs.    England.  Concertos. 

Beardsmore,  Mrs.    England.    Sonatas  and  songs. 

Schumann,  Clara.  Germany.  Songs  and  piano 
music. 

Dufferin,  Countess  of.  England.  Songs. 
PoLKO,  Elise.    Germany.  Songs. 
Puget,  Louise.    France.  Songs. 
Sainton-Dolby,  Mme.    England.  Songs. 


DEDICATIONS. 

MOZART. 

Two  sonatas  for  piano  and  violin,  to  Princess  Vic- 

toire  of  France. 
Two  sonatas  for  piano  and  violin,  to  Countess  de 

Tesse. 

Six  sonatas  for  piano  and  violin,  to  Queen  Charlotte 
of  England. 

Six  sonatas  for  piano  and  violin,  to  Princess  Caroline 
of  Nassau. 

Aria,  "  Fra  cento  affanni,"  to  Countess  Firmian  of 
Milan. 


212 


APPENDIX. 


Two-act  serenade,  "  Ascanio  in  Alba,"  to  Maria 
Theresa. 

Concerto  for  three  pianos,  to  Countess  Lodron  and 
her  daughters  Aloysia  and  Giuseppa. 

Concerto,  to  Countess  Liitzow. 

Serenade,  to  Elizabeth  Haffner. 

Aria,  "Ah!  t'invola  agli,"  to  Josephine  Duschek. 

Aria,  "  Non  so  donde  vienes,"  to  Aloysia  Weber. 

Sonata  for  piano  and  violin,  to  Therese  Pierron. 

Six  sonatas  for  piano  and  violin,  to  Princess  Marie 
Elizabeth. 

Song,  "  Oiseaux  si  tous,"  to  Mile.  Wendling. 

Aria,    lo  non  chiedo,"  to  Aloysia  Weber. 

Aria,  "  Ah,  non  so  io,"  to  Countess  Baumgarten. 

Aria,  "Nehmt  meinen  Dank,"  to  Aloysia  Weber. 

Solfeggien,  to  Constance  Mozart. 

Sonata  for  piano  to  Constance  and  Sophie. 

Sonata  for  piano,  to  Constance  Mozart. 

Aria,  "  Ah !  non  sai,  qual  pena,"  to  Aloysia  Weber. 

Aria,  "  Vorrei  spiegar-vi,"  to  Aloysia  Weber. 

Aria, "  No,  no,  che  non  sei  capace,"  to  Aloysia  Weber. 

Mass  (comp.  1783),  to  Constance  Mozart. 

Concerto,  to  Barbara  Ployer. 

Sonata  for  piano  and  violin,  to  Regina  Strinassacchi. 
Trio,  to  Francisca  von  Jacquin. 
Rondo,  to  Nancy  Storace. 
Aria,  "  Resta,  O  caras,"  to  Josephine  Duschek. 
Aria,  "Ah  se  in  Ciel,"  to  Aloysia  Weber. 
Aria,  "  Schon  lacht  der  holde  Friihling,"  to  Mme. 
Hofer. 

Aria,  "  Chi  sa,  chi  sa,  qual  sia,"  to  Mile.  Villeneuve. 
Aria,  '*  Vado  ma  Dove } "  to  Mile.  Villeneuve. 


APPENDIX. 


213 


BEETHOVEN. 

Sonata,  op.  7,  to  Countess  von  Keglevics. 
Three  sonatas,  op.  10,  to  Countess  von  Browne. 
Trio  in  B  major,  op.  ii,  to  Countess  von  Thun. 
Two  sonatas,  op.  14,  to  Baroness  de  Braun. 
First  concerto,  op.  15,  to  Princess  Odescalchi. 
Sonata  in  F  major,  op.  17,  to  Baroness  de  Braun. 
Septet  in  E  major,  op.  20,  to  Empress  Maria  Theresa. 
Sonata,  op.  27,  No.  i,  to  Princess  Lichtenstein. 
Sonata,  op.  27,  No.  2,  to  Countess  Guicciardi. 
Variations  in  F  major,  op.  34,  to  Princess  Odescalchi. 
Marches,  op.  45,  to  Princess  Esterhazy. 
Rondo  in  G  major,  op.  51,  No.  2,  to  Princess  von 
Lichnowsky. 

Aria,  "  Ah !  perfido,"  op.  65,  to  Countess  von  Clary. 
Trios  in  D  and  E  major,  op.  70,  to  Countess  von 
Erdody. 

Six  songs,  op.  75,  to  Princess  Kinsky. 
Sonata,  op.  78,  to  Countess  Therese  von  Brunswick. 
Three  songs,  op.  83,  to  Princess  Kinsky. 
Polonaise,  op.  89,  to  Empress  Elizabeth  of  Russia. 
Song,  "  An  die  Hoffnung,"  to  Princess  Kinsky. 
Sonata,  op.  loi,  to  Dorothea  Ertmann. 
Sonatas,  op.  102,  Nos.  i  and  2,  to  Countess  von 
Erdody. 

Sonata,  op.  109,  to  Fraulein  Brentano. 
Thirty-three  variations,  op.  120,  to  Frau  Brentano 
Twelve  variations  in  F  major,  to  Eleanore  von 
Breuning. 

Trio  in  B  major   (one  movement),  to  Fraulein 
Brentano. 

Twelve  variations  in  G  major,  to   Princess  von 
Lichnowsky. 

Six  variations  in  D  major,  to  Princesses  Deym  and 
Brunswick. 


214 


APPENDIX. 


Lichte  sonata  in  C  major,  to  Eleanore  von  Breuning. 
Nine  variations  in  C  minor,  to  Countess  von  Wolf- 
Metternich. 

Twenty-four  variations  in  D  major,  to  Countess  von 
Hatzfeld. 

Twelve  variations  in  A  major,  to  Countess  von 
Browne. 

Ten  variations  in  B  major,  to  Countess  Keglevich. 
Eight  variations  in  F  major,  to  Countess  von  Browne. 
Song,  "  An  die  Geliebte,"  to  Regina  Lang. 
March  in  F  major,  to  Empress  of  Austria. 

SCHUBERT. 

Three  songs,  op.  20,  to  Justina  von  Bruchmann. 
Zuleika's  Second  Song,  op.  31,  to  Anna  Milder. 
*'  Der  ziirnenden  Diana,"  to  Katharina  von  Lacsny. 
"  Nachtstiick,"  to  Katharina  von  Lacsny. 
Seven  songs  from  Scott's  "  Lady  of  the  Lake,"  op.  52, 

to  Countess  of  Wessenwolf. 
"  Divertissement  a  la  Hongroise,"  to  Katharina  von 

Lacsny. 

Overture  to  "Alphonso  and  Estrella,"  to  Anne  Honig. 
Three  songs,  op.  92,  to  Josephine  von  Frank. 
Four  songs,  op.  96,  to  Princess  von  Kinsky. 
Fantasie,  op.  103,  to  Countess  Caroline  Esterhazy. 
Four  songs,  op.  106,  to  Marie  Pachler. 
"  Der  Hirt  auf  dem  Felsen,"  op.  129,  to  Anna  Milder. 
Sonata  in  C  major,  op.  140,  to  Clara  Wieck. 

SCHUMANN. 

Variations  on  name  "Abegg,"  op.  i,  to  Countess 
d'Abegg. 

"  Papillons,"  op.  2,  to  Therese,  Rosalie,  and  Emelie. 
Impromptus,  op.  5,  to  Clara  Wieck. 


APPENDIX. 


Allegro,  op.  8,  to  Baroness  de  Fricken. 
Sonata  No,  i,  op.  11,  to  Clara  Wieck. 
"Fantasie  Stiicke,"  op.  12,  to  Anna  R.  Laidlav. 
"Arabeske,"  op.  18,  to  Majorin  Serre. 
"  Blumenstiick,"  op.  19,  to  Majorin  Serre. 

Humoreske,"  op.  20,  to  Julie  von  Webenau. 
Sonata  No.  i,  op.  22,  to  Henrietta  Voigt. 
"  Liederkreis,"  op.  24,  to  Pauline  Garcia. 
"  Myrthen,"  op.  28,  to  Clara  Wieck. 
Three  songs,  op.  30,  to  Josephine  B.  Cavalcabo. 
Three  songs,  op.  31,  to  Countess  von  Zedtwitz. 
Scherzo,  gigue,  romance  and  fugue,  op.  32,  to  Amalie 
Rieffel. 

Six  songs,  op.  36,  to  Livia  Frege. 
Quintet,  op.  44,  to  Clara  Schumann. 
Andante  and  variations,  op.  46,  to  Harriet  Parish. 
"  Dichterliebe,"  op.  48,  to  Wilhelmine  Schroder- 
Devrient. 

"  Bilder  aus  Osten,"  op.  66,  to  Lida  Bendemann. 
*'  Waldscenen,"  op.  82,  to  Annette  Preusser. 
"  Fantasie  Stiicke,"  op.  88,  to  Sophie  Peterson. 
Six  songs,  op.  89,  to  Jenny  Lind. 
Three  songs,  op.  95,  to  Constanze  Jacobi. 
'*  Bunte  Blatter,"  op.  99,  to  Mary  Poltz. 
Six  songs,  op.  104,  to  Elizabeth  Rutmann. 
Six  songs,  op.  107,  to  Sophie  Schloss. 
"  Jugend  Album,"  op.  109,  to  Henrietta  Reichmann. 
Three  "  Fantasie  Stiicke,"  op.  11 1,  to  Princess  Reuss- 
Kostritz. 

Three  sonatas,  op.  118,  to  Julie,  ^llise,  and  Marie. 

Three  songs,  op.  119,  to  Mathilde  Hartmann. 

"  Albumblatter,"  op.  124,  to  Alma  von  Wasielewski. 

Seven  piano  pieces,  op.  126,  to  Rosalie  Leser. 

Five  piano  pieces,  op.  133,  to  Bettina. 

Overture  to  "  Hermann  and  Dorothea,"  op.  136,  to 

"  Seiner  lieben  Clara." 
Four  songs,  op.  142,  to  Livia  Frege, 


2l6 


APPENDIX. 


MENDELSSOHN. 

Six  vocal  quartets,  op.  59,  to  Henriette  Bennecke. 
Songs,  op.  57,  to  Livia  Frege. 

Motets,  op.  39,  to  the  nuns  of  Trinita  da  Monti  Rome. 

Songs  without  words,  op.  53,  to  Sophie  Horsley. 

Songs,  op.  34,  to  Julie  Jeanrenaud. 

Songs  without  words,  op.  67,  to  Sophie  Rosen. 

Concerto,  op.  25,  to  Delphine  von  Schaurotte. 

Songs,  op.  47,  to  Constanze  Schleinitz. 

Songs  without  words,  op.  62,  to  Clara  Schumann. 

Symphony  (Third),  to  Queen  Victoria. 

Songs  without  words,  op.  30,  to  Elisa  von  Worringen. 

Songs  without  words,  op.  38,  to  Rosa  von  Worringen. 

CHOPIN. 

Etudes,  op.  25,  to  Countess  d'  Agoult. 
Nocturnes,  op.  27,  to  Countess  d'  Appony. 
Polonaise,  op.  44,  to  Princess  de  Beauvan. 
Nocturnes,  op.  32,  to  Baroness  de  Billing. 
Valse,  op.  64,  No.  3,  to  Baroness  Bronicka. 
Rondo,  op.  14,  to  Princess  Czartoryska. 
Scherzo,  op.  54,  to  Mile.  Caraman. 
Prelude,  op.  45,  to  Princess  Czernicheff. 
Mazurkas,  op.  63,  to  Countess  Czosnowska. 
Nocturnes,  op.  48,  to  Mile.  Duperre. 
Grande  Polonaise,  op.  22,  to  Baroness  Est. 
Allegro,  op.  51,  to  Countess  Esterhazy. 
Bolero,  op.  19,  to  Countess  de  Flahault. 
Mazurkas,  op.  17,  to  Mme.  Freppa. 
Scherzo,  op.  31,  to  Countess  Fiirstenstein. 
Berceuse,  op.  57,  to  Mile.  Gavard. 
Rondo,  op.  16,  to  Mile.  Hartmann. 
Valse,  op.  18,  to  Mile.  Horsford. 
Variations,  op.  12,  to  Mile.  Horsford. 


APPENDIX. 


217 


Nocturnes,  op.  62,  to  Mile.  Kouneritz. 
Rondo,  op.  I,  to  Mme.  de  Linde. 
Impromptu,  op.  29,  to  Countess  Loban. 
Mazurkas,  op.  56,  to  Mile.  Maberly. 
Rondo,  op.  5,  to  Countess  Moriolles. 
Mazurkas,  op.  33,  to  Countess  Mostowska. 
Allegro  de  Concert,  op.  46,  to  Mile.  Miiller. 
Ballade,  op.  47,  to  Mile.  Noailles. 
Sonata,  op.  58,  to  Countess  Perthius. 
Nocturnes,  op.  9,  to  Mme.  Camille  Pleyel. 
Mazurkas,  op.  6,  to  Countess  Plater. 
Concerto,  op.  21,  to  Countess  Potocka. 
Valse,  op.  64,  No.  i,  to  Countess  Potocka. 
Valse,  op.  64,  No.  2,  to  Baroness  Rothschild. 
Ballad,  op.  52,  to  Baroness  Rothschild. 
Fantasie,  op.  49,  to  Princess  Souzzo. 
Nocturnes,  op.  55,  to  Mile.  Stirling. 
Barcarole,  op.  60,  to  Baroness  Stockhausen. 
Polonaise  Fantasie,  op.  61,  to  Mme.  Veyret. 
Mazurkas,  op.  30,  to  Princess  of  Wurtemberg. 


WEBER. 

Two  allemandes  for  piano,  op.  4,  to  Mile.  Lisette 
d'Arnhard. 

Variations  for  piano,  op.  5,  to  the  Empress  Maria 
Theresa. 

Variations  for  piano,  op.  7,  to  the  Queen  of  West- 
phalia. 

Polonaise  for  piano,  op.  21,  to  Margaret  Lang. 

Six  pieces  for  piano,  op.  10,  to  the  Princesses  Marie 

and  Amelie  of  Wurtemberg. 
Recitative  and  rondo,  op.  16,  to  Luise  Frank. 
Vocal  duett,  op.  31,  to  Queen  Caroline  of  Bavaria. 
Canzonet,  op.  29,  to  Queen  Caroline  of  Bavaria. 
Six-voice  song,  to  Madame  Schrock. 


2l8 


APPENDIX. 


Grand  sonata  for  piano,  op.  24,  to  the  Grand  Duchess 

Marie  Paulowna. 
Seven  variations  for  piano,  op.  28,  to  Fanny  von 

Wiebeking. 
Six  vi^altzes,  to  the  Empress  Marie  Louise. 
Scene  and  aria,  op.  52,  to  Therese  Griinbaum. 
Air  Russe,  op.  40,  to  the  Grand  Duchess  Marie 

Paulowna. 

Scene  and  aria,  op.  51,  to  Helene  Harlas. 
Cavatina  for  soprano,  to  Madame  Weixelbaum. 
Cantata  "  L'Accoglienza,"  to  Maria  Anna  Carlina  of 
Saxony. 

Scene  and  aria,  op.  56,  to  Mme.  Milder-Hauptmann. 
Mass  in  G,  op.  76,  to  Queen  Maria  Amalia  Augusta  of 
Saxony. 

''Invitation  to  the  Dance,"  op.  65,  to  "his  Caroline." 
Concert-Stiick,  op.  79,  to  the  Princess  Marie  August 
of  Saxony. 

Cantata,  to  the  Duchess  Marie  Amalia  of  Saxony. 
Cantata,  to  the  Princess  Therese  of  Saxony. 
Song,  "  Nourmahal,"  to  Miss  Stevens. 


INDEX. 


Abbott,  Emma,  igg,  202. 
Adelaide,  17,  61. 
Albani,  Emma,  199,  202. 
Albom,  Mme.,  193,  197,  19S. 
Arnim,  Bettina  von,  72,  205. 
Amould,  Sophie,  190,  191. 
Auber,  29,  195. 

Bach,  Johann  Sebastian,  20, 
129,  204  ;  his  ancestry,  35  ; 
youth  and  manhood,  37  ;  his 
first  wife,  38 ;  her  marriage 
and  death,  39 ;  his  second 
wife,  41 ;  their  domestic  life, 
42  ;  her  musical  influence,  43  ; 
Bach's  death,  44. 

Bach,  Maria  Barbara,  38. 

Bartolozzi,  Mme.,  94. 

Beethoven,  17,  20,  26,  28,  45,  60, 
113,  118,  119-12 1,  135,  194, 
201 ;  domestic  conditions,  62  ; 
the  Breunings,  64-67 ;  a  flirta- 
tion, 67;  Barbara  Koch,  68; 
Mile,  de  Gerardi,  69;  Bar- 
oness von  Drossdich,  69 ; 
Amelia  de  Sebald,  71  ;  Bet- 
tina von  Arnim,  72-7S ;  Dor- 
othea van  Ertmann,  72  ; 
Magdalena  Willmann,  73 ; 
Marie  Koschak,  73-75;  Coun- 
tess Guicciardi,  7S-S1. 

Belocca,  Anna  de,  199. 


Berlioz,  20. 

Billington,  Elizabeth,  190-192. 
Bishop,  Anna,  200. 
Bonheur,  Rosa,  19. 
Bordoni,  Faustina,  188-189. 
Brandt,  Caroline,  165,  166,  168- 
176. 

Breuning  family,  64-68. 
Bronte,  Charlotte,  19. 
Browning,  Mrs.,  19. 
Brunetti,  Therese,  167-171. 
Cannabich,  Rose,  97. 
Caroline,  Queen,  54. 
Cary,  Anne  Louise,  199,  202. 
Catalani,  Angelica,  190,  192, 

193-  _ 
Cherubini,  28. 

Chopin,  17,  113,  128,  132,  179; 
a  Polish  attachment,  151  ;  in 
Warsaw,  152  ;  at  Nice,  152  ; 
relations  with  George  Sand, 
i53~i59  ;  his  death,  159,  160. 

Choral  Symphony,  63,  83. 

Cimarosa,  28. 

Cuzzoni,  Francesca,  188,  189. 
Devrient,  Edouard,  141. 
Dorus-Gras,  Mme.,  193,  197. 
Drasdil,  Anna,  200. 
Drossdich,  Baroness  von,  69. 
Eliot,  George,  19. 
Erdody,  Countess,  81. 


220 


INDEX. 


Eroica  Symphony,  83. 

Ertmann,  Dorothea  van,  72. 

Ess^pofT,  Mme.,  203. 

Esterhazy,  89,  91,  121-124. 

Falcon,  Mile.,  193,  195,  196, 

Fidel  io,  60,  118,  194. 

Frohock,  Mrs.,  204. 

Gabrielli,  Caterina,  188,189,200. 

Gazzaniga,  Mme.,  199. 

Genzinger,  Mme.,  91-93,  95. 

Gerster,  Etelka,  199. 

Gluck,  28,  191. 

Goddard,  Arabella,  203. 

Goethe,  72,  75,  76,  77,  119,  191. 

Grisi,  Giulietta,  193,  195,  205. 

Grob,  Theresa,  118. 

Guiccardi,  Countess,  78-81. 

Handel,  20,  26,  28,  48,  110,  144, 
188,  190;  childhood,  49;  his 
mother,  50;  her  death,  51; 
royal  patronage,  52  ;  queer 
matrimonial  conditions,  53  ; 
Handel  at  court,  54  ;  temper 
with  singers,5s  ;  social  habits, 
56 ;  relations  with  Vittoria, 
57  ;  anecdotes,  58. 

Hauck,  Minnie,  199,  202. 

Haydn,  Joseph,  17,  20,  28,  47, 
84,  192,  194  ;  his  first  love,  85, 
86;  courtship  and  marriage, 
87  ;  service  with  Prince  Es- 
terhazy, 89;  an  Italian  liaison, 
91  ;  friendship  with  Mme. 
Genzinger,  92,  93  ;  visit  to 
London,  94  ;  the  English 
widow,  95. 

Haydn,  Michael,  85. 

Hayes,  Catharine,  193,  197. 

Hensel,  Fanny,  21,  140-143,205. 

Herschel,  Caroline,  19. 

Honrath,  Jeannette  de,  67. 

Hosmer,  Harriet,  19. 

Hummel,  28. 

Jeanrenaud,  Cecilia,  144-147. 

Keiserin,  Mile.,  96. 

Kellogg,  Clara  Louise,  199, 202. 


Kingman,  Carrie  T.,  204. 
Koch,  Barbara,  68. 
Koschak,  Marie,  73. 
Krebbs,  Marie,  203. 
Lagrange,  Mme.,  199. 
Lang,  Gretchen,  164,  165. 
Lind,  Jenny,  193,  198. 
Liszt,  Franz,  20,  128,  149,  151, 

153,  155.  159.  179- 
Litta,  Marie,  202. 
Lucca,  Pauline,  199. 
Lulli,  28. 

Malibran,  Mme.,  193-195,  205. 
Mara,  Gertrude  Elizabeth,  189- 
191. 

Marimon,  Marie,  199. 
Materna,  Frau,  200. 
Mehlig,  Anna,  203. 
Mehul,  28. 

Mendelssohn,  20,  29,  132  ;  his 
sister,  140-143 ;  descriptions 
of  his  wife,  144-147 ;  his 
death,  147. 

Meyerbeer,  29,  193,  195. 

Milder,  Anna,  118,  193,  194. 

Mingotti,  Caterina,  188,  189. 

Moonlight  Sonata,  17,  81. 

Mozart,  17,  20,  26,  28,  65,  96, 
162 ;  his  early  fancies,  97 ; 
Aloysia  Weber,  98  ;  her  sister 
Constance,  loi  ;  letter  to  his 
father,  104  ;  a  marriage  con- 
tract, 105  ;  love  quarrels,  107 ; 
the  marriage,  108. 

Miiller,  Max,  24. 

Neruda,  Mme.,  203. 

Nevada,  Emma,  199. 

Nilsson,  Christine,  199. 

Novello,  Clara,  193,  196. 

Osgood,  Emma  A.,  200,  202. 

Pachler,  Marie,  73-7S,  119- 

Parepa,  Euphrosyne,  198,  199. 

Parodi,  Mme.,  199. 

Pasta,  Mme.,  193,  194,  205. 

Patti,  Adelina,  199,  202. 

Patti,  Carlotta,  199. 


INDEX. 


221 


Persian!,  Mme.,  193. 
Pisaroni,  Mme.,  193. 
Potocka,  Delphine,   152,  159, 

160,  205. 
Requiem,  Mozart's,  17,109, 110. 
Rossini,  28,  193,  195,  196. 
Roze,  Marie,  199. 
Sand,  George,  17,  19,  149,  151, 

153-159,  179- 
Schubert,  20,  26,28,  75,112,  132  ; 

extracts  from  diary  and  letters, 

114,  115  ;  Theresa  Grob,  118  ; 

songs  for  Anna  Milder,  119; 

visit  to  the  Pachlers,  120 ; 

the  Esterhazy  family,  121  ; 

relations  to  the  daughters, 

121-124. 
Schumann,  20,  26,28,  150,  195, 

203  ;  Clara  Wieck,  126-137  ; 

other  attachments,  136;  mar- 
riage, 135. 
Schumann.  Clara,  21,  126-137, 

143,  150,  203,  205. 
Schroder-Devrient,  Mme.,  119, 

176,  193,  194. 
Schrolter,  Mme.,  94,  95. 
Sebald,  Amelia  de,  71. 
Seguin,  Zelda,  199. 
Somerville,  Mary,  19. 
Sontag,  Henrietta,  193-195. 
Sophie  Charlotte,  Electress,52. 
Stael,  Mme.  de,  19. 
Sterling,  Antoinette,  200,  202. 
Storace,  Nancy,  190,  191. 


Thursby,  Emma,  199. 
Tietjens,  Theresa,  198. 
Torriani,  Mme.,  199. 
Trouveresses,  21. 
Urso,  Camilla,  203. 
Valleria,  Alwina,  199. 
Verdi,  28. 

Viardot,  Pauline,  193,  197. 
Vittoria,  57. 
Vogler,  105. 

Voigt,  Henrietta,  136,  205. 

Von  Bulow,  178,  182. 

Wagner,  20,  26,  28,  176,  200; 
his  youth,  177  ;  his  first  wife, 
178;  meeting  with  Cosima  von 
Biilow,  178  ;  the  second  mar- 
riage, 180;  his  death,  182. 

Wagner,  Cosima,  178,  180-183, 
205. 

Weber,  17,  28;  his  ancestry, 
162  ;  meeting  with  Gretchen 
Lang,  164  ;  Caroline  Bi-andt, 
165;  troubles  with  Brunetti, 
167 ;  engagement  to  Caroline 
Brandt,  173  ;  marriage,  174; 
his  death,  176. 

Weber,  Aloysia,  96, 98-102,  109. 

Weber,  Constance,  loi-iio, 
162,  205. 

Wegeler,  63,  64,  68,  78,  82,  121. 

Willmann,  Magdalena,  73. 

Wiilkens,  Anna  Magdalena, 
41. 

Zucchi,  Mme.,  199. 


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